


From the Beginning

by Ibelieveinahappilyeverafter



Series: Guardians [1]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Characters to be added, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Partial Show Rewrite
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2019-02-08
Packaged: 2019-06-08 02:29:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 28,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15233361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ibelieveinahappilyeverafter/pseuds/Ibelieveinahappilyeverafter
Summary: Danny Fenton was a simple, sixteen-year-old teenager who loved fast food, video games, and getting a B on surprise pop quizzes. He’s also the half-ghost teenage hero Danny Phantom who defends Amity Park from ghost attacks on a daily basis. Somehow, the ghost attacks make a lot more sense than crushes, friendships, and falling in love with someone he is definitely not supposed to be falling in love with. It was a lot easier to separate Phantom and Fenton before, but now it’s getting harder the more he learns about himself. Just who was he? The dorky son of scientists who loved the stars or the hero that protected the town. He’s starting to feel like he won’t like the answer. (Iambic Prose) (Prequel to Guardians and Partial Show Rewrite)





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonjour, mes chers! For those of you who may not yet be aware, you'll see that this is a rewrite of the original From the Beginning. For those of you who have been paying attention, you'll notice that I've been teasing something I've called 'The Revival' for the last few months on my blog. Put simply, it's the final revival and rewrite of From the Beginning and Guardian. The stories have both been planned out from beginning to end and are planned to finish around the end of 2018 if all goes according to plan.
> 
> This has been done because I was not happy with the story as it was and could not, in good consciousness, finish Guardian as it was. The entire world has been changed, there have been massive overhauls to the story and characters themselves, and the other books now have definite plots as to where the story will go.
> 
> So, real quick, the series has been renamed to Guardians and will contain, as of this moment, four books. From the Beginning and Guardians (the new title) is due to be completed by the end of 2018 with the third book starting early 2019.
> 
> [I've also made a new blog to keep up with all things Guardians since we're in this for the long run! It's a tumblr blog under the name  **theguardiansseries**. This will be where new chapters, art, and everything else is posted.](https://theguardiansseries.tumblr.com/)
> 
> I hope you understand this choice and if you do? Thank you so much for sticking with me all of these years. If you decide to leave Guardian behind once and for all then hey, I understand. I've been there and done that too. No matter what, if you've ever read even a chapter, then thank you, and I hope my words made you smile at least once. Make sure to check out the blog for everything you need to know and bonus content here and there!
> 
> * * *

From the Beginning Exclusive

A Written Trailer

"Hello? Anyone here?" Danny shifted outside the massive library, hesitantly knocking on the doors and oh. Okay. That happened, then. Right. Doors swinging open without anyone there. That  _was_  his life, wasn't it? "Great. I'm trapped in a horror movie and it's not even a good one."

Pushing his way in, Danny swallowed at the silence and the thousands of books that he could see even from the front doors. "Hey, uh, Ghostwriter dude? Your doors kind of opened and I came here to, um, visit?"

::

"Huh." Danny crouched down, tilting his head at one of the broken murals. While the other murals at Pariah's Keep had been beautifully painted across the walls and held strong even now, this one was shattered on the floor. "I wonder what you meant."

There had been one with ten cloaked figures crowning Pariah as king, but then the next few had shown Pariah's fall and his subsequent imprisonment. Danny half wondered who had drawn the murals, but he was willing to chalk it up to it being a ghost thing. Reaching a hand out, Danny brushed his fingers against the mural he was currently inspecting.

While there were ten figures, they weren't the shapeless cloaked figures from the other murals. These ten all had varying sizes and heights, but it was broken in the way that only one figure was separated from the rest. Danny wondered if  _these_ were the original Ancients. He never heard much about them, and he was pretty sure 'the Ancients' was just the Observants in disguise, but these ghosts definitely didn't look like Observants.

Shifting his balance, Danny almost tumbled forward before he caught himself, both hands now braced against the cracked mural-

_Golden eyes that shone like molten gold and death and hate and loss and pain and how dare they how dare they **how dare they**  when it had been him to bring them all together and if they wanted to suffer than he would show them and he would make them see him  **he would make sure they never forgot again** -_

Grunting as he hit the floor on his back, Danny stared up at the ceiling and only absently realized he was gasping for breath and what… What had that been?

::

"Recent?  _Recent_ \- It's always been like this! You've always been so damn prideful and full of yourself and it's gotten worse ever since you became 'Phantom.' You think you're  _above_  everything!"

"Above- You have  _no idea_ what I go through! I'm trying to be 'in charge' because I, at least, know about all these damn ghost things-"

"And I don't?! I've been right here this entire time and learning it all the same time as you! I've been here the whole time  _and you don't even see me_! I'm nothing but the tech guy to you!"

"At least you know what you are! I don't even know if I'm  _alive_  anymore some days-!" Danny's voice died in his throat as he saw the shot that was speeding towards them and while it might hurt ghosts, this was a shot that could  _kill_  humans and  _no_ -

::

"The blame seems to lie in both parties this time around, so why not agree to forgive and forget on both sides?"

"Jeez, does everything you say sound like it's from some kind of Hallmark card?" Laughter bubbling out at the annoyed look he was given, Danny shook his head and forgive and forget, huh? Not bad, but… "Hey, Ghostwriter, what about something else, instead?"

"Oh, please. 'Something else' typically means a battle royale and I'm uncertain about you, but I prefer to solve disputes these days by-" Ghostwriter's mouth closed with a snap, Danny's grin growing wider as he continued to hold out his hand.

"Hi, there. My name is Danny and I'm a half-ghost idiot with a saving people thing. I hate Christmas, I love my friends, and it's nice to meet you." The long silence was worth it when the ghost finally clasped his hand, genuine smile on his face.

"Hello, Danny. My name is Ghostwriter and I'm obsessive over my books and tend to talk to myself outloud. It's nice to meet you, as well."

::

"You don't understand- I wasn't even a  _ghost_." Danielle, the little girl that had pretended to be his cousin the last week, looked up at him as if  _begging_  him to understand. Danny found it hard to when he was strapped in some machine and doing his best to not panic. "If it wasn't for Daddy- If it wasn't for Vlad, then I would still just be a half-formed spirit thing floating around the Ghost Zone. He  _gave me_ my life back."

"That doesn't mean- That doesn't mean you just go and do everything he says! You're your own person, aren't you?" Please- Please see that this was  _wrong_. "Do you really think this is the right thing to do?"

"No, but… Danny, please. He's hurting. Daddy loves me, but he's  _hurting_  and I ran away to see if he would care enough to come get me and he did! I didn't think he'd hurt you, too, but  _please_ , you have to _help him_."

::

"So, yeah." Danny took a breath after a rambling apology that had went on for far too long, a little of the weight falling off his shoulders when he saw Elliot's smile. "I'm… I'm sorry that we got off on the wrong foot. I can kind of jump to conclusions, sometimes, and I didn't mean to make you feel like you didn't belong. Trust me. I know how it feels."

"You could have just said sorry," Elliot laughed, stepping forward and resting a hand on Danny's shoulder. "It's alright. I did kind of push my way between all of you."

"It's hard to be a new kid," Danny shrugged, and, okay… Maybe Elliot could be okay. Maybe everyone was right and he had just been a jealous brat. "Right, so, um, yeah. It'll- It'll be nice to have another friend around here."

"That's sweet." Elliot laughed again, grip tightening on Danny's shoulder for a moment. "I never would have thought that ghosts could pretend to be so kind."

"Gh… Ghosts." Danny watched as Elliot's glasses slipped down and no… No, there was nothing warm in those eyes. "I don't-"

"It's okay." It was the same feeling as when he had stepped into the portal and felt his palm press against a button. A missed step. A wrong move. An unseen threat. A  _mistake_. "The Guys-in-White have been very eager to meet you, Danny Phantom."

::

"Give her back!" Ice crawled through his veins and Danny knew that each breath he breathed out was filled with crystals of ice and snow. "She's not yours."

"Meddlesome child." Plants with thorns and toxins deadly even to ghosts rose up, Undergrowth at the center of it all with Sam sitting under him. "She will be Queen. This child will carry on the work that has been left unfinished for far too long! After her death is complete, she shall be the one to heal the world."

"Maybe, but she doesn't need to die to change things. She never has." Energy colder than anything he had ever felt poured into his hands, and this. This was why he had first started fighting back. Someone needed to stop the ghosts.

::

"I always wondered, but why  _do_  you risk so much to protect your town? Surely you've read enough comics to know how poorly life is for a 'hero.'" Ghostwriter stared at him steadily, curiously, and Danny felt all his lies die in his throat.

"I…" He told everyone it was because he had always dreamed of being a hero. He agreed that he had a 'saving people' thing. He swore up and down that if he didn't do it, then he'd regret that he never got the chance to do something so amazing. None of it… Not all of them were lies, but they weren't  _the_  truth.

"You risk everyone and you don't have to. I've known you for months, almost, but I just can't understand it." Ghostwriter was honestly confused and Danny couldn't help but laugh. Really. Shouldn't a writer have known before anyone else? "Wha- Danny?"

"No, no, it's just… It's simple, isn't it?" At the look, Danny shook his head. "Bad things… Bad things happen sometimes, right? A lot of times, you can't do anything about it, and you just help where you can and keep on going. The thing is, though…" Danny swallowed, looking up at Ghostwriter and taking a steady breath.

"When bad things happen and you have the power to stop it and you don't? Then the bad things happen  _because_  of you. If I have these powers and someone gets hurt and I can do something? I'm going to do it. It's not because I'm playing at being hero, but because I'm doing whatever everyone else has always done. I'm protecting my home."

::

"Danny-" If this Reality Gauntlet thing really worked, which he had just proved it did, then they would never remember this, and that? That was perfect.

"I love your stupid poetry, I love how you mutter under your breath when you have a new idea you want to write about, I love your stupid hair and how you can never completely get it to lay flat you  _hypocrite_ , I love how you sometimes go hours without realizing that your coat that you've been looking for is on the back of the only couch you ever sit at, I love how you can't see without those stupid glasses, I love how you have to always have your tea in just the right way or you won't drink it, and I love, more than anything else, that you saw  _me_."

Andrew seemed struck completely speechless, Danny giving a hopeless smile. "I always thought it'd be Sam, you know? Maybe Paulina or someone else from school, but then I met you, and… God. It's like I met you, and I knew- I wasn't looking to ever fall in love like I did, but then I met you, and oh, man. I lost so bad, Andrew. So I'm going to say it now, just this once.

"I'm in love with you, Andrew Riter. I love you. You're never going to remember this, but I thought you deserved to know at least just once."

::

"Oh, I see." Still crouched and ready for danger, Danny eyed the ghost that was in front of him in the dream he had found himself in now. He didn't know where Nocturne was, but he was going to be ready for anything. "She must be dreaming…"

"Right, yeah, okay, dream that knows it's a dream. Great. Is there where the walls start oozing blood?" A laugh escaped the ghost in front of him. It was definitely a ghost Danny had never seen before. The hairstyle alone was something he  _definitely_  would have remembered considering it was dreads tied up with beads and chains and, yeah, definitely not something from today's style. "You should know that I don't go down without a fight and-"

"Hush, young one." The ghost walked forward and before Danny could fly away, he was taking a necklace off and pressing it into Danny's hands. It looked like a dreamcatcher or whatever, only… It was glowing and the thread seemed like ghostly energy rather than  _thread_. It reminded him of Clockwork's staff, weirdly enough. "When you see Nocturne, gift this to him. He will know what it is."

"I, uh, yeah. Okay?" This was a very weird dream, but if Danny didn't have to fight, then, yeah, hey, great. "Do you know where to find him, right now? I'm kind of trying to stop the entire  _world_  from entering into a sleep coma."

"Follow this path until it ends." Great. Cryptic. Just what he needed. "Young one…" The ghost bit his lip, Danny near jerking back in surprise when his cheek was cupped. "Oh, such young ones. I'm sorry for what you will face."

::

"That's that, then, huh?" Danny rubbed at his eyes before looking back to the results of three night's all said the same thing no matter how many times he reworked the problem. "I'm dying."

He felt like the words should have torn something apart in him, but all they did was make him tired. He supposed, somehow, that made even more sense.

::

"You know, GW, I have a feeling that we're going to be great friends."

"I find that I rather agree with you on that."

 _Now, let's begin_...

* * *

"Come on, Danny, it's not like it's going to kill you to just try it!" The attempt to slam the door shut in his sister's face was tragically stopped by a strategically placed foot. The girl didn't waste the moment and immediately used her levage to squirm into the room like the demented creature she was. "If you're not going to tell anyone to avoid being a 'burden' on them, then the least you can do is write it all down."

"Jazz, for the last time, I am  _not_ keeping a  _diary_." Danny loved his sister. Really, he did, he loved her, and he was trying to be better about being kinder around the holidays after the Christmas he just had, but she was really tempting him to go out and destroy something. A building, maybe. Shopping mall? Either way, it would be messy and entirely her fault. "Why do you even  _want_ me to keep a diary?"

"I told you, Danny, it's because you won't  _talk_ to anyone." Ready to defend himself, Danny paused when Jazz held up a hand for silence. "I'm not blaming you. I know there's things you probably can't talk about, but that's why this would be good for you. It'll help you think about and work out your emotions without self-destructing first to get there."

"Seriously?" Seeing the incredibly serious look on his sister's face, Danny groaned and gave up any hope of forcing her out the door. Even  _with_ his half-ghost strength, Jazz was a force onto herself that couldn't be stopped. The Fenton genes had really taken hold of them, sometimes. "I still don't see how a diary is going to fix me."

"Danny, it's not about trying to  _fix_ you." Setting the stupid diary down on his desk, Jazz moved to envelop him in a hug and, yeah, wow, okay. Maybe Danny could use a few more hugs if he wasn't even trying to act annoyed by it. "It's about trying to  _help_ you."

"Isn't that the same thing, basically?" The hug tightened and Danny was suddenly extremely grateful that his ghost half gave him better endurance. "Okay, okay, got it, the stupid journal is going to help me!"

"Oh? I thought it was a diary." Poking his tongue out at Jazz's teasing, Danny wiggled his way free to look down at the stupid thing. It was black and had  _green_ pages on the inside.

"If I have to write in it, then it's not a diary. It's a journal." Cautiously flipping the cover over and opening the journal, and half expecting something incredibly horrible to pop out, Danny paused at seeing a scribbled note on the inside from Jazz and his friends. "I  _knew_ the green would be their idea."

"Mhm. It's mint green, too. It's supposed to be easier on the eyes and cause less eye strain." Oh. That was… That was kind of neat of them. "Tucker wanted it to be neon green."

"That doesn't surprise me." Maybe Danny should dye Tucker's hair neon green for a while. It wasn't like anyone would really  _see it_. Probably. "Okay, so, I write in this stupid journal. How long do I have to do it for?"

"You have to write about every ghost you've encountered at least  _once_  and then at least a few sentences about every ghost fight starting now. Other than that, you can write whatever you want and however much you want."

"Are you kidding me?" Every ghost- Did Jazz  _realize_ how many ghosts Danny had gone up against? He had gotten his powers a little over a  _year_ ago! "That's like giving me even  _more_ homework to do!"

"The maybe you'll do your other homework to avoid this homework." Oh, his sister was evil. She was vicious, and cruel, and heartless, and would likely rule the earth one day. At least Danny knew where Bearbert was if he needed a hostage. "It doesn't have to be an essay, Danny. Think of it like talking to a friend that'll never tell your secrets to anyone else."

"Yeah, unless they  _read_ it," Danny snorted and oh- Oh. Maybe he could come up with some cool, secret language to use. Then again… That  _was_ effort. "And didn't we learn how bad an idea diaries were with the whole Tom Riddle thing?"

"Yes, only this 'journal' doesn't talk back and try to get you to kill people." Jazz finally released him from the hug she had forced on him, pushing him towards his chair. "Just try it. If nothing else, it'll at least help you keep everything straight about which ghost you fought when."

"You just want my life to be as organized as yours," Danny complained, dropping into his desk chair and staring at the note his friends had left him. He guessed it maybe wouldn't be the  _worst_ thing in the world to write it all down. Maybe he could even turn it into a story one day and have it published. 'Danny Fenton and his Bullshit Adventures' had a nice ring to it. "Fine. I'll try writing in the stupid journal."

"Really?" Jazz near  _lit up_ , throwing her arms around him and  _kissing his cheek_. Pulling a face, Danny tried to struggle away, although he could admit only to himself that he didn't struggle all that much. "That's great! Here I thought I would have to bribe you-"

"Whoa, wait, what? What bribes? What kind of bribes are you making?" Because while Jazz was about as decent a cook as their  _mom_ , her baking was  _great_. It wouldn't be the first time Jazz had bribed him with baked goods, either. "Jazz, that's not fair, if you planned to do it then now you  _have_ to do it."

"Really?" Jazz snorted, shaking her head. "Fine, maybe if you have something written by the time I finish my fudge, then I'll let you have some." Oh,  _hell_ yes. If it was one thing any Fenton could do, then it was make fudge. Jazz, luckily for him, made the  _best_ fudge.

"I'm on it." Turning back around to face the journal, Danny snorted as Jazz stuck a pen between his fingers before near  _prancing_ away. Danny guessed he would be pretty happy if he won, too. "Right. Okay. How hard can it be to write something about all the ghosts?" It wasn't like there were  _that_ many. "Wait- Hey! Do I have to write about the accident, too!"

His door shut with a soft click and Danny decided that was as good as a 'maybe' which, technically, could mean no. Alright, so. First ghost attack after he got his powers. That would've been… Jeez, the first time he met the Lunch Lady- No. No, actually. That would have been those Ectopusses that had attacked Sam and Tucker. Jeez. He had almost forgotten about them.

It had hardly been a month since his accident in the portal and his dad hadn't even  _noticed_ when the ghosts came in and grabbed his friends. Thinking about it, fighting them off had been… That had kind of started Danny's 'hero' career. He hadn't even  _thought_ of using his powers until he managed to save his friends with them. That moment of fighting back had changed  _everything_.

Fuck. Jazz might actually be right when she said this would help him. Groaning and adjusting his grip on the pen, Danny began writing his thoughts down. At least he didn't have to worry about anyone else trying to read the stupid journal. If nothing else, he could always burn the stupid thing to get rid of all the evidence.

Right, okay. What was after that? It had been the stupid Ectopusses and  _then_ it had been the Lunch Lady. God, that mess had been- Just the  _lunch_ menu had caused a wreck, but then add a vengeful ghost to the mix? At least it had caused Sam to tone back on her vegetarian thing. Plus, he had started to understand his powers, after that mess- Hey! That was also the first time he had used the Fenton Thermos!

"Feels longer than a year," Danny mused to himself, the silence in his room settling around him before he was sighing and grabbing his phone, putting on some music. Silence wasn't  _bad_ , but having at least  _something_ playing in the background helped. "Right, Lunch Lady and then- Oh, god,  _Skulker_."

That horrible event had been good in finding out how ready his friends were to fight ghosts for him, but that whole mess with Skulker and the purple back gorilla had just been  _exhausting_. Sampson- Er, Delilah, was still doing well, at least, in the zoo. It was kind of funny that they thought Delilah would be the last of her kind until they found out there was another solution. It was just how Danny thought  _he_ was the only one of his kind until, well…

Right. After that was Dora and finding out he could overshadow people, then it was Technus and Danny's whole self-esteem about being popular, and then it was… Desiree? No- No, it was Poindexter and  _then_ it was Desiree. Jeez, he never would have thought that Tucker was so jealous over everything if that hadn't happened.

God, the more he thought about it and wrote everything down, the more crazy it all seemed to get, like it had all started building up. Ghosts were thought to be made up, and then suddenly it was Vlad, Walker, Spectra, Cujo and Valerie taking up the mantle of Red Huntress, Ember, Johnny and Kitty, Fright Knight, Freakshow, the Guys-in-White, Pariah Dark, Youngblood, and then  _Dan and Clockwork_.

His life had started out perfectly normal and he had been like any other fourteen-year-old and then he had pressed a button and now his hometown was like Gotham City! And he was the Batman! After seeing the future and looking at what he could have possibly become… It wasn't that hard to imagine him becoming 'evil,' really.

Clockwork had changed things to show the worst possible outcome, yeah, but he had explained it to Danny later. Danny would have gotten desperate and stolen the answers on his own with his powers, and then after that… It wouldn't have been hard to use his powers for other shortcuts. Vlad was example enough of how power could go to one's head, and Danny was half  _ghost_. Ghosts were… They were volatile.

Maybe he wouldn't have been as bad as the Dan that he saw, but he still… He wouldn't have been Danny Phantom, anymore. He had started to forget why he risked so much to help people and then that little event had reminded him. It had given him just what he needed to keep going. It… Fuck. Clockwork had planned it all from the very beginning to help Danny even with the Observants meddling in his life. That was- That was pretty awesome, actually.

Right, okay, focus. Ghost fights. The most recent ghost catastrophe was with that  _Ghostwriter_  dude. Ugh, he had been stuck in rhyme all  _day_. It… Thinking about it now, when he wasn't so angry, it… It had kind of been his fault, hadn't it? God, he had been an outright  _dick_ when he met the Ghostwriter.

He had destroyed the guy's novel - his only copy of it - and he had  _gloated_. That would've been like someone destroying one of Jazz's research papers or one of his model rockets- One of the ones that had taken him literally  _weeks_ to build. Danny had destroyed that book to scraps and then  _gloated_ about it. If that had happened to Danny, then, yeah, he would have been pissed about it, too.

Danny hadn't even properly apologized, had he? Then again, the other had taken it way too far when he trapped Danny in a poem and almost  _ruined his life_. It was so totally not his fault- The start, maybe, but not the end.

There was a quiet thud of a plate being set down beside him, Jazz smiling at him. "How's it coming along, then-"

"It wasn't my fault." Danny crossed his arms and leaned back, glaring at Jazz as she blinked at him. "It  _wasn't_. Like, yeah, okay, I destroyed the guy's poem, but he then  _trapped me_ in  _another_ one. That's not my fault!"

"Wait, wait, is this about that ghost you fought the other day that you told me about? Ghostwriter?" Of course it was!

"Like, yeah, okay, I was kind of a dick, but there was no need to take it  _that_ far! Besides, he's a ghost, he probably would have attacked me when he realized who I was, anyways."

"Uh huh. And all ghosts attack you on sight, then?"  _Yes_. Except, well… No. Poindexter wasn't all that bad when Danny ran into him, these days, and while Clockwork had attacked, he had done  _everything_ to help Danny prevent something far worse. Cujo had been the best, of course, and Johnny and Kitty were sometimes tolerable. "It sounds like you feel bad about what you did."

"Oh, please, I do not want to deal with psychologist Jasmine, right now. Where's sister Jazz?" Danny grabbed a piece of fudge and oh, god, it was so  _good_. It was good enough that he didn't even argue when Jazz stopped his music and sat on the bed.

"Alright. It sounds like you feel bad about what you did." Huffing, Danny grabbed another piece of fudge out of spite. "You'll get sick if you eat too much of that."

"You're such a  _mom_. And I'm not- That guy almost destroyed my entire  _life_! I mean, okay, yeah, I can understand wanting to get back at someone, but he almost made me lose  _everything_." The entire town and his friends and family had near turned against him.

"Was he really just doing it to get back at you, though? From what you told me, it sounded like he was trying to teach you a lesson about being a Scrooge."

"That- Yeah, but…" Thinking on it, he kind of  _did_ learn a lesson from it all. That poem had shown him that relying on his friends was okay, and that taking joy out of the little things was better than being so  _angry_ at everything. It was the same lesson Clockwork had taught him, just on a smaller scale.

He had learned that anger could accomplish a lot, but letting it consume him was a lesson he had failed to learn before Clockwork showed up. It was a lesson that Vlad was still failing and Danny had almost followed in his footsteps without even realizing it. He had learned to not take shortcuts, but he had forgotten to not hold onto that  _anger_ until Ghostwriter showed up.

"Maybe he wasn't such a bad guy, after all?" Jazz swiped a piece of fudge for herself, munching on it as she smiled at Danny. "He might be happy to know you learned a lesson from his poem, you know."

"And I'd be happy to avoid Walker and his jail." Although, knowing that the guy could rewrite and alter  _reality_ , he probably wouldn't be in there for very long. Really, the  _Box Ghost_ could get out of Walker's prison most days. "I'll think about it." At Jazz's look, Danny stuck his tongue out. "I  _said_ I'd think about it."

"That means you won't do it." Yeah, well… "Do you want my advice?" Mm. He supposed he could always use a little more advice in his life. "I think you should apologize." Nevermind. He didn't need advice that badly.

"Yeah, but, you know, if I see him, there's a good chance I'll be pissed enough to try and punch him in the face. That's probably behavior you shouldn't be encouraging, and all."

"Yes, but he is a dangerous ghost, so I suppose if you feel like you're being threatened and you happen to punch him after apologizing, well," Jazz shrugged, her smile more of a smirk than anything else. "I suppose there's nothing I can do about  _that_."

Staring at his sister for a long few moments, Danny finally pushed himself up and moved to the bed, drawing Jazz into a hug. "You're a great big sister and I promise I'll try to limit myself to only  _one_ punch."

"I'm sure," Jazz laughed, hugging him back. "So, are you going to do that now, then? Mom and Dad probably won't notice if you step out for an hour or two."

"Yeah, might as well." Plus, they both knew that if Danny didn't go now, then he probably never would. Although… "I might visit someone else first, though."

"Really? Who? Sam or Tucker?" Hmph. He had more friends than  _just_ Sam and Tucker.

"Neither. It's someone who might be able to help me  _not_ punch Ghostwriter in the face." Because, yeah, he did kind of want to apologize, but he also needed to know if Ghostwriter was going to be a threat, as well as if he really had been trying to help or if he was just fighting Danny for revenge. "I'll be back in a few hours."

"Alright." Jazz looked skeptical as Danny stood up and let his transformation take hold of him, the cold in his room no longer really affecting him. Probably a ghost thing. "Just be back in time for dinner."

"Don't worry. I'll be perfectly on time, today." Danny grinned before shooting down to the basement. Hopefully, if he was willing to share, then Clockwork should at least have a few answers for him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonjour, mes chers! Apologies for taking so very long to upload the second chapter, but I've been busy visiting my girlfriend in Washington! I'll be gone another week or so, but I'll try to get a bit more content uploaded for you all.
> 
> [Just a reminder, I've made a new blog to keep up with all things Guardians! It's a tumblr blog under the name  **theguardiansseries**  and it contains chapters, art, and everything else Guardians.](https://theguardiansseries.tumblr.com/)
> 
> With that out of the way, enjoy the chapter!

"Hey, Clockwork! I'm here to abuse your all-powerful powers and possibly put the entirety of time and space in danger with my reckless and uncaring nature!" Floating through the doors of Clockwork's  _citadel_  with amusement, Danny took his time to look at all the clocks that were up on the walls. So far, he had counted fifty-seven unique clocks.

"I'm afraid the Observants aren't here, at the moment, but I'm certain that your words would have earned an hour-long lecture for the both of us." Following the voice, Danny snickered to himself as he thought about a lecture with the  _Observants_. He had only met them once, but already he knew that Clockwork hated them with a passion. "Here to complain about your most recent Christmas?"

"Hey, I don't always complain when I visit you!" Thanks to the unpredictability of the Ghost Zone, Danny soon found himself in Clockwork's usual work space that he was  _pretty sure_ was at the top of a tower. How had he even heard him from all the way at the entrance- No, no. Don't apply science to the Ghost Zone. That was his parents' job. "You just give good advice is all."

"I'm honored." A child-sized Clockwork floated in front of a large surface that Danny supposed was a mirror, images flashing across it faster than he could comprehend. "What advice shall I be giving today?"

"Well, if you happen to have the answers to the next pop quiz in History- Kidding, kidding." Danny raised his hands defensively when an adult-sized Clockwork turned to glare at him. "It was a joke. Mostly."

"I'm certain." A few seconds passed where Danny thought he might have actually- "Chapters seven, twelve, and thirteen."

"Whatever I did in my life to earn you, I'm very thankful for it." Flying over to the ghost, Danny hovered in the air beside him, slowly relaxing. For some reason, he always felt relaxed in Clockwork's citadel, even after the whole scythe incident. Speaking of. "Were you really going to chop my head off?"

"No. In case you were unaware, I am very good at my timing," Clockwork smirked, a rumbling chuckle in his chest as he now stroked his long beard. "Your friend saved you precisely when he was meant to at precisely the right time."

"Yeah, okay, but what if he  _hadn't_." Clockwork tossed him another smirk, and, right. No questioning super powerful time ghosts. "Okay, so I wasn't in any danger, but a  _scythe_?"

"It was fun." Oh, of course he looked like a child when he said  _that_. "Now, I believe you came here for another matter?" Hmph. Take all the fun out of things.

"Well, excuse me for getting distracted." Right, right, focus. He had wanted to ask about Ghostwriter. "So, uh, about the whole Christmas fiasco…"

"You want to know more about the Ghostwriter." Well. At least Clockwork let him get his questions out before answering them. That was always nice. There was also the fact Clockwork helped him when he was stuck in History. "You also want to assure me that it's not your fault."

"It wasn't!" Well… "Okay, yeah, the whole thing of the original poem being destroyed, yeah,  _that_ was my fault, but I'm not the one that wanted to start a fight!"

"And if someone were to destroy one of your models and then gloat about the fact, you would let the matter rest?" Well, when he said it like  _that_ , then it kind of made Danny sound even worse. "It takes two conflicting ideals for a fight to begin. Ghostwriter was not the only one in the wrong in that moment."

"Okay, okay, fine, yes, it's my fault, but don't you think I suffered enough considering I was stuck in a  _poem_?" Instead of a good answer, Danny watched as Clockwork stroked his beard again. "You're doing that to annoy me, aren't you?"

"Perhaps." Yes, then. "You wish for an apology, then?" Nn… Not quite  _that_. "Or is it you wish to give one?"

"You already know the answer." The other gave him a smile and Danny gave a small one himself in return. "I just want to know a few more things, I guess. Like- Okay, would he have still trapped me in that poem if I had apologized right then?"

"Hm." Clockwork hummed in thought, small hands gripping his staff as he tilted his head back. "No, you would not have been trapped in the poem. He would have been angry, of course, but as long as you apologized he would not have done any harm."

"Great, make me feel worse, why don't you?" So, it had just been Danny's fault entirely that he had gotten stuck in that poem. "So, uh… Was he just trying to teach me a lesson, then?"

"While I don't believe that was the only reason, it seems he  _did_ manage to teach you something about the holidays." Yeah, don't take his anger out on other people when they had done nothing wrong. "He can be a rather volatile individual at times, but the Ghostwriter typically avoids fights and violence."

"Really?" Huh… He supposed that made sense. Ghostwriter hadn't exactly fought back all that well when his keyboard had been smashed. "So, when does he get out of jail?"

"He was released early this morning, I believe, after his brother went to collect him." He had a brother? Since when did the  _ghosts_  have  _siblings_ \- Oh, right. Half-brother Randy picture frame. "Walker was unwilling to argue against the pair of them."

"Yeah, no kidding, seeing as this Ghostwriter guy can control and alter  _reality_." Like, yeah, sure he had to use a keyboard for it or whatever, but that was still some powerful stuff. Danny forgot how crazy ghost powers could be sometimes- Like him and his ghostly wail.

"Yes. His brother is even more powerful, however." Wha-  _Seriously_? What could be more powerful than  _controlling reality_? "Relax, Daniel," Clockwork laughed, the sound fond as he ruffled Danny's hair into more of a mess. "Ghostwriter's powers, for as grand as they are, do have limitations."

"Thank god," Danny muttered, trying to fix his hair as he moved to instead float on his back, ignoring Clockwork's amused grin. "Okay, so he's out of jail. Great. Uh, say I  _did_ go over and apologize to him…"

"You would remain unharmed while you were there, and he would be willing to listen. Although…" Although? "Well, I suppose you'll find out when you do go." Oh- Oh, that was just-

"That's just  _mean_." Clockwork's laughter was a pitch higher, this time, but no less fond. "C'mon, don't I get a hint! What's the point of knowing someone who can see and control time if that power can't be abused!"

"If you'd like, I can do something better than a hint." Really? Awesome! "Stand still, close your eyes, and take a breath."

"Seriously?" Seeing Clockwork looked kind of serious, Danny sighed and did as told. When he took a breath, he shuddered as he felt- Jeez, he didn't know  _what_ he felt. It was like the feeling when he went through the portal- Portal. "Oh, that  _bastard_."

Looking up at the library in front of him, Danny huffed and crossed his arms. "That is  _not_ what I meant by wanting a hint!" Somewhere out there in the Ghost Zone, Clockwork was laughing at him. "This doesn't mean you win!" Clockwork had  _definitely_ won, but Danny would at least go down denying it until his very last.

Right, okay. Apologizing. He could apologize. Clockwork had even said that it would all be alright, and while Clockwork could pull tricks, he never lied. He  _especially_ never lied about things like this. Floating up the steps, Danny felt almost as if the lions were watching him as he raised his voice.

"Hello? Anyone here?" Danny shifted outside the massive library, hesitantly knocking on the doors and oh. Okay. That happened, then. Right. Doors swinging open without anyone there. That  _was_ his life, wasn't it? "Great. I'm trapped in a horror movie and it's not even a good one." If anything, it was probably a low budget B-rated one with bad actors.

Staring at the open doors a second longer, Danny pushed his way inside, swallowing at the utter silence and the thousands of books that he could see even from the front doors. "Hey, uh, Ghostwriter dude? Your doors kind of opened and I came here to, um, visit?" Apologize. Visit. It was all the same thing really, right? "So, uh, if you're there right now, then that would be great."

Silence. There was nothing except absolute  _silence_ and it was freaking Danny out more than he wanted to admit to. It wasn't  _his_ fault that the Ghost Zone was so goddamn creepy. Plus, typically, being trapped in a building with someone who hated him didn't turn out very well.

Hearing quiet mumbling, Danny just barely resisted the urge to throw an ectoblast out. That would probably damage some books and that was sort of the  _opposite_ of what he was going for. "-since the  _nineties_ , at  _least_. Are you sure we kept the historical fiction works up here? I thought we moved them to one of the lower levels."

Shit. He was talking to someone. That- That could be bad, especially if it was the brother who was supposed to be  _stronger_ than him. Was it too late to run? Danny felt like it might have been too late to run. Floating in the air, and ready to turn human and phase his way out if he needed to, Danny watched as Ghostwriter rounded the corner, books floating all around him as he carried another half dozen and  _Jesus_. Danny thought the whole writer thing was bad, but he looked more like a librarian and  _fuck_. Danny had lost books and had seen the librarians' faces afterward. Destroying one? Ghostwriter was  _so_ going to kill him.

It was weird that there didn't seem to be anyone around, though- Had the person he was talking to left? Oh, god, what if he was crazy and talked to thin air? That was the worst possible- Ah. He was looking at him. "Uh, hi?" There. That was safe, right?

"H… Hi." Ghostwriter stared at him, most of the books dropping a few inches in the air as he slowly narrowed his eyes and oh, no, that wasn't good, was it? "Trespassing rather seems like something that would be discouraged by a 'hero.'"

"Hey, the doors opened up all on their own!" And… Okay. Now the guy was glaring  _at the ceiling_. What the absolute- He was crazy. Yeah, okay, all ghosts were a little crazy, but really- Oh, no, maybe he was just glaring at God. Yeah. Danny would do that, too, honestly. "I knocked, they opened, they shut behind me, and now I'm here."

"So I see." Ghostwriter turned his back and began ordering the books into neat piles on a table that already had about a  _dozen_ piles. Jeez. Spring cleaning, maybe? In winter? "I take it there's a reason as to why you came here in the first place."

"Oh, uh, right. Yeah- Yes. There is." Right. Apologizing. Because Danny had been a dick and the more he thought about leaving things bad between the two of them the worse he felt. "I…" Deep breath, Fenton. "I came here to apologize."

"Really." Wha- Hey! There was no need to sound so skeptical! "Whatever apology you have to offer would be equivalent to having your teeth pulled, no doubt. There's no need to continue."

"I- Wait, did you just tell me to not bother apologizing because it would hurt me too much?" That… That was… "Dude, that was  _impressive_." Danny winced when Ghostwriter gave him a look that was between confusion and disdain. "I, uh- Yeah. I kind of- I really  _did_ want to apologize, though."

"Somehow, I doubt it was of your own volition." His what? "Who forced you to come do this? A well-meaning friend?"

"Hey, no one  _forced_ me to come- Well, okay, my sister kind of helped me see that, yeah, I was a total dick, and Clockwork kind of encouraged me to come apologize, but I want it on record that I probably would have come  _without_  any interference. Eventually." He- The man  _laughed_. Danny could only stare as Ghostwriter, the one who had trapped him in a poem,  _laughed_.

"Well, you're interesting, if nothing else, I suppose." That- Was that a compliment? That seemed like it could have been a compliment. Maybe. "I… I suppose you weren't the only one at fault in the ensuing fight."

"Oh. Uh, cool, I guess?" Okay, right, being glared at again. "I mean- I mean, you stuck me in a poem that read like a Charles Dickens story. That was kind of extreme even by ghost fight standards."

"You know who Charles Dickens is?" Oh- Oh, that was just  _insulting_. Danny hated how much he wanted to laugh. "This day just keeps getting more and more surprising, it seems."

"Ha, ha. Look, I just… I have enough enemies in my life, is all. It'd be nice to know there's one ghost out there who at least isn't going to attack me on sight, so, uh… I'm sorry."

"I… I am as well. Even if you sorely needed that lesson, I can admit I went to extremes when I attempted to teach it to you." Ha! It  _was_ about learning a lesson! Nice to know the guy was Scooby-Doo crazy and not Skulker crazy.

"So, uh, we cool?" Danny noticed Ghostwriter looked almost  _pained_ before he was finally giving a small sigh and a smile to go with it.

"The blame seems to lie in both parties this time around, so why not agree to forgive and forget on both sides?" Oh, man, that was just- That was something.

"Does everything you say sound like it's from some kind of Hallmark card?" Laughter bubbling out at the annoyed look he was given, Danny shook his head, and, okay. Forgive and forget, huh? Not bad, but… "Hey, Ghostwriter, what about something else, instead?"

"Oh, please. 'Something else' typically means a battle royal and I'm uncertain about you, but I prefer to solve disputes these days by-" Ghostwriter's mouth closed with a snap, Danny's grin growing wider as he continued to hold out his hand from where he had flown over to him and extended it.

"Hi, there. My name is Danny and I'm a half-ghost idiot with a saving people thing. I hate Christmas, I love my friends, and it's nice to meet you." The long silence was worth it when the ghost finally clasped his hand, genuine smile on his face.

"Hello, Danny. My name is Ghostwriter and I'm obsessive over my books and tend to talk to myself out loud. It's nice to meet you, as well."

"Oh, so you  _were_ talking to yourself when I first got here. Good to know." The other rolled his eyes, Danny choking back a laugh as they let go, and… He kind of didn't want to leave. Yeah, okay, he had apologized like he planned, but this felt- It felt like a  _moment_.

A small feeling at the back of his mind was telling him that this was a moment the same way the Fenton Portal had been a moment. It was the exact same feeling right before he had felt that button against his palm. Right. He needed to figure out a way to stay for a bit longer, so…

"I know you said it's cool and all, but I still feel kind of bad, so, uh, maybe I can help you around your library for a while? Make up for the book I destroyed?" And learn more about Ghostwriter in the process. It never hurt to do a little more recon on a ghost, after all.

"You- Really?" Ghostwriter blinked, looking startled. "You would help out in a library because you still 'feel bad.'"

"Hey, I'm not some dumb jock." God forbid  _that_ ever happened. "Look, I have five days left of my Christmas break. I can come over on those five days and help you out for a few hours with whatever you need." Probably stacking and organizing books, seeing how much of a wreck this place was looking. "If I can stay and help for all five days, then the two of us can go our separate ways and everything is forgiven. Sound good?"

There was an uncomfortably long silence where Ghostwriter did nothing except stare at him before finally giving a  _smirk_. "Alright. Five days of work for forgiveness." Oh, aha, wow. Danny suddenly had the overwhelming feeling that he had just gotten in over his head with this. It was like he had just signed his own  _death_ warrant. "Return here first thing tomorrow at nine o'clock Amity Park time-"

" _Nine_?! Dude! I said I'd help, but I'm still on break, here!" Instead of staying like a logical, sane person, Ghostwriter's smirk widened before he was  _walking away_ and disappearing between the ridiculous number of bookcases. "I didn't agree to this!" Except… "Fuck, I agreed to this."

From somewhere in the library, Danny  _swore_ he heard laughter. Okay, okay, just- Stay calm. Ghostwriter would probably only keep him until two or so and then he'd be free the rest of the day. Easy. Besides, five days of work seemed like an even trade to not make an enemy out of the guy that could  _control reality_.

And it was  _shelving books_. How hard could something like shelving books even be?


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonjour, mes chers! I'm finally back and settled in and looking for a job, but until that has to be worried about enjoy the latest chapter!
> 
> [Just a reminder, I've made a new blog to support me and keep up with all things Guardians! It's a tumblr blog under the name  **theguardiansseries**  and it contains chapters, art, and everything else Guardians. It also contains behind-the-scenes drabbles and snippets from other character's point of views -the first of which can be found **here**.](https://theguardiansseries.tumblr.com/post/176394193906/from-the-beginning-excerpt-1)
> 
> With that out of the way, enjoy the chapter!

"I'm pretty sure most people would label this as torture, you know!" As promised, Danny had come to the library the next day at around ten- Okay, he had  _woken up_  a little before nine, but then he had to eat, reassure his parents, talk to Jazz, and then he had to eat something  _else_ where his mom's food had looked poisoned, and  _then_ he had to actually  _find_ his way to the library considering Clockwork had just formed a portal for him the last time. Still. It was already almost three, probably, and Danny was  _dying_. "Why do you have so many books!"

"Surprising as this may seem to you, there's quite a few books that exist out there in the world." Ghostwriter seemed to be as cheery as Sam when a new Hot Topic opened, which, yeah, pretty terrifying. "Those go over in the spiritual growth section."

Looking down to the  _glowing_ books he was currently killing his back with, Danny stared for a solid five seconds before he looked back to Ghostwriter. "Is that… Is that a joke?" It was  _almost_ bordering on a pun. Ghostly spirit-y books being put in a 'spiritual growth' area.

"Unfortunately, the Ghost Zone doesn't seem to have a system when it comes to filing, so I'm forced to make do with what I can. Second floor, fifth shelf from the northeast corner." Wha… What? "Oh, honestly. It's right past the section on Geography."

"I'm pretty sure that's not how the Dewey Decimal system works," Danny grumbled, flying the books up to the second story and, seriously, this library looked  _way_ smaller on the outside. The second story was even more pretentious than the first one, too.

Like, okay, the library was covered in purples and whites and all that, but the second story had white railings that looked to have carved  _flowers_ or vines or something like that on them. It was stupidly pretentious. Not to mention the bookcases on the first floor were arranged like a goddamn maze, Ghostwriter using his powers to levitate them around to different places whenever he felt like it. Danny could get re-organizing, but this was just  _ridiculous_.

Danny ended up staying there until at least six judging by how worried Jazz was when he finally got back, and the second day wasn't much better. It seemed that he was there eight hours a day  _easy_  - although it was nice that Ghostwriter managed to find non-poisoned food for him to eat around 'lunch.' So, yeah, free, non-poisoned food. It definitely could have been worse.

By the third day of his guilt apology offer, it wasn't so bad. The library was quiet and peaceful, which, yeah, kind of surprising in the Ghost Zone, but it was nice. It was also kind of fun to get lost in a simple task like shelving and ordering books. Yeah, alright, so, okay, maybe he had mis shelved a few books here and there, but Ghostwriter seemed to always find them quick enough, so that was something.

His back had even adjusted to the  _stupidly_ heavy books he was always flying and carrying around, and after that it really was kind of nice. Maybe he'd even get a part-time job in a library back in Amity Park if the whole ghost fighting thing ever settled down. It really wasn't all that bad.

It was even nice making a ghostly friend who wasn't totally batshit crazy - okay, so, maybe the guy got lost in his books pretty easily and tended to slip into rhyme and sometimes forgot Danny was even there until he almost crashed into him or tripped over him due to having his nose stuck in a book while he was walking, but, really, they all had their quirks - even if Ghostwriter's had ended up leaving Danny near crying of laughter when the man had tripped over him and ended up on the floor in pure confusion. Just the thought had Danny snickering to himself again.

"I know what you're laughing about." Shit. Putting on as innocent an expression as he could, Danny huffed when the man didn't buy it for a second. "You should be more careful where you choose to sit-"

"Dude, I was bending over to pick up a book I dropped." Danny couldn't be sure, but he was almost  _certain_  that Ghostwriter was blushing. It was great.

"My point stands." Sure, it did. "Now, you were telling me about your sister before you went away with the pixies."

"Before I- What?" Went away with the- What did that even  _mean_? Was it some kind of ghost phrase that maybe meant-

"It means you were lost in your thoughts," Ghostwriter laughed. Danny was still getting used to the fact ghosts could laugh and  _not_ sound evil. "It's something you do remarkably often."

"Yeah, well… It's just that Jazz is always trying to help with all this ghost stuff, but it's not-  _She's_ not- It's not  _safe_ , you know? At least me and my friends have had time to get used to fighting ghosts, but she hasn't."

"You haven't thought to help her get to the level you're on now? From the stories I've heard, it seems you were rather bad at all of this yourself when you first started."

"That's the  _point_ , though. I don't want her to start ghost hunting  _period_!" It was  _dangerous_. At least Sam and Tucker knew how to use the weapons, and Danny had ghost powers! Jazz was- She was great, but she wasn't ghost fight great.

"You should be fighting  _with_ each other, not against each other," Ghostwriter tsked. He  _tsked_. "My older brother was always further along in physical attributes than I was, but he always took the time to help me catch up, so we could fight alongside each other."

"Why would you two even need to know  _how_ to fight- Nope, no, nevermind, too long a story and I need to prove a point." Ignoring Ghostwriter's 'cough,' Danny shook his head. "Look, Jazz is- She's not a fighter, you know?"

"However, it sounds like she wants to help you. You're siblings. No one is going to understand your struggles better, and the important part is to keep each other safe  _while_ fighting together." Yeah, but-

"Look- Look, okay, you're a younger sibling, right?" Waiting until he got a nod, Danny continued. "You should get it, then. Sometimes we have to protect the idiots who never even  _think_ of protecting themselves."

There was a long moment where Danny was ready for Ghostwriter's next argument before the ghost gave a small nod. "I see your point." Ha! That was a win! A win on a technicality or something or whatever, but still a point! "I still believe that you should allow your sister to help, however." Ghostwriter hummed, tone of voice turning casual. "She seems smarter than you, after all, and certainly a little more intelligence could never hurt."

"Oh, ha, ha." Still… Ghostwriter kind of had a point, himself. Jazz  _was_ smart, and she probably could help them without getting involved in an actual ghost fight. Maybe… Maybe he  _should_  start bringing Jazz more into the ghost side of his life. "Alright, c'mon, where are these books going now?"

Following Ghostwriter's directions and random conversation starters was pretty easy after getting over his initial wariness, to the point that it felt like hardly any time at all before he was on his last day of break.

He had meant to help finish with the entire main level and get all the cases and shelves looking great, but, well… He may have gotten distracted  _reading_ the books rather than actually  _sorting_  them- It wasn't his fault, though! They had finally gotten to the fiction books and there had been a pile of sci-fi books and, okay, look, Danny wanted to be an astronaut for a reason, okay, this was basically  _training_  for that.

"So, this is where you disappeared too, then." Shiiit. Ghostwriter had found him. "Oh, please, I'm hardly going to take away a book you're actually  _reading_."

"Hey." Danny frowned up at the man, ready to argue and complain before he saw the plate of food he was holding and oh, yeah, he could eat.

"Honestly, you're like a puppy the way you just perked up." Wha- He was not a  _puppy_! "Which book did you get distracted by?"

"In my defense, this was a danger the second you wanted me to shelf the science fiction stuff." Danny tilted the book, so Ghostwriter could see the title before he was carefully setting it  _away_ from the food. He was kind of wary about damaging books after everything, which, yeah, definitely not gonna hurt a book when Ghostwriter was  _right there_.

"You like science fiction, then?" There was no need to sound so  _surprised_ about it. "Mm, I shouldn't be too shocked. Your parents  _did_ build a portal into a world full of ghosts."

"I still have trouble believing that, some days." Like, yeah, okay, ghosts. Ghosts were a normal, everyday part of Amity Park, now. So, ghosts, but also  _ghosts_.

"If it helps, I still have trouble believing what I am, now." Ghostwriter picked up the book Danny had been reading and started flicking through it, Danny staring at him and… He had forgotten, but the ghosts had been human once, too. He was used to the nutjobs like Skulker and Technus, but how many ghosts were like Ghostwriter who were still  _human_? "I'm curious, what would you say was your favorite book?"

"I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure asking that question is, like,  _blasphemy_ for a book lover." Mostly because he had asked Jazz that question once, and she had looked at him as if he had asked her to murder a child in front of him. "Shouldn't you hate that question?"

"You would think," Ghostwriter laughed, taking a seat across from Danny at the table. "I actually find that asking someone for the name of their favorite book reveals a lot about a person."

"Yeah, alright, Sherlock- And that's not my favorite book." Watching the man bite back what was probably a laugh, Danny sighed and leaned back in his seat and, right, favorite book… Nn. "Does favorite author count?"

"Oh? That right there says even more about you." Ghostwriter was fucking with him. He had to be. Looking up, he saw a grin that showed the man was  _definitely_ fucking with him. "I'll accept it just this once."

"Ha ha." Leaning forward and grabbing his sandwich, Danny took a bite and swallowed before glancing up to Ghostwriter again. "Don't laugh."

"I would never." Somehow, that was a hard one to believe. Still, it wasn't like his favorite author was  _bad_ , just not that well-known.

"My favorite author is M. J. Anderson." Seeing the expression forming, Danny pointed at him. "I said don't laugh!"

"I wasn't going to." Oh, wow, he denied that rather quickly. "I just- I suppose I'm surprised that of all the authors you could pick, you choose that one."

"Hey, Anderson had a lot of really great books- I mean, have you  _read_ The Soundless Clock?" The other's expression looked like some weird combination of embarrassment and amusement, Danny crossing his arms and choosing to ignore him. The Soundless Clock is one of the best books to have ever been written, and  _Star Gazers_  isn't very far behind, either."  _That_  had Ghostwriter laughing.

" _Star Gazers_? That book read like it was written by a sleep-deprived college student who had one too many cups of coffee! It's riddled with small plot holes, grammatical mistakes, and the narrative seems to switch from Star to Ches at some places!"

"You mock it, yet you've read it?" A helpless little shrug was the only response he was really given. "Okay, yeah, the book doesn't  _read_ the best, but that doesn't- That doesn't affect the story, you know?"

"Oh? What do you mean?" The ghost was up to something, but dammit, Danny had a point to prove!

"It's- Ah, jeez, man, it's hard to explain, but it's like- The book isn't the best, but the story is. Like, okay, yeah, it reads like it was still a rough draft, in some places, but it was a great  _story_. It was all about being scared to leave home and leaving anyways because of the idea of what's  _out there_. It was about being sheltered and alone and not knowing what it was like out there but wanting to find out! It was a story about- About exploring the galaxy and being able to one day say, 'Ah, yes, I know that star, and that one, and that one, and I know all their stories.' It's- It was a book about adventure and space and- And- Dude, that book is what  _made me_ want to be an astronaut!"

"Did it, now?" Ghostwriter had a small, silly little smile on his face, one cheek propped up on his hand as he stared at Danny. Deciding that he didn't even want to ask, Danny quickly took another bite of his sandwich. "You seem to adore Star Gazers, but you still think Soundless Clock is better?"

"Well, yeah." Right. Time to defend his books again- God, he  _had_ become his sister. "If you say anything bad about that book, I think I might have to fight you again."

"Alright, then. Tell me what's good about it." That- Well. That was a very long list, but it was one Danny was willing to share- Or… Maybe not a list.

"Andrea didn't want to be a hero." Ordering his thoughts, and, yeah, okay, this was actually a good way to start it. "Yeah- Yeah. Andrea didn't want to be a hero, but she became one because no one else was going to do it, you know? She was a kid off the streets, but she got into trouble and lied about it and then- Oh, man. She ended up on possibly the coolest ship in the entire world and she hated it just until she stepped on and realized she  _loved it_. She was shit at every job they gave her, but then she worked on the ship and fixed it up, and that ship- That ship isa main character the same way  _Hogwarts_  is a main character in Harry Potter.

"But, Ghostwriter, man, dude, she basically went from this little kid who didn't know what she was doing to a  _hero_ because she could help, because- Because she could, you know? She was there, and she knew she could help, and so she did." That… The Soundless Clock had always been his favorite book, but there were even more reasons to love it, now. "She became a hero and even though she went through some really horrible shit, she still kept going. That… It was a great story."

"Not including the plot hole in the chapter on the Airship Gala-"

"Fuck you, that was not a plot hole, that was foreshadowing."  _That_  got the man's attention, Danny smirking. "Looks like  _you_  don't keep up with the fan forums. I mean, that guy- Oh, man, you don't create a character like that and never use him again."

"I suppose, and yet, there's no sequel." Yeah, and considering the book had been published in the  _eighties_ … "I like to think that the man she met was actually the friend of her mother's and the Admiral."

"Really?" Huh. That was- That was actually a pretty good theory. "I can see it. Oh, man, a sequel would have had so much potential."

"There's always hope," Ghostwriter grinned, leaning back in his seat. "Thank you, by the way, for telling me why you love those stories."

"Oh, uh, sure?" Such a weird ghost. "So, right, okay, shelving the sci-fi books. Where are these going?"

Much to Danny's surprisingly disappointment, the end of the day came far too soon, Ghostwriter and Danny managing to talk about their favorite books before circling around to talk about their siblings and then ghosts and everything in between. It was great, and then the entry area of the library was clean and looked amazing.

"So, uh, I guess that's that, then." It looked a lot neater and a lot less dusty after everything, so Danny supposed Ghostwriter sort of knew what he was doing. "Five days of library cleaning."

"You did better than I would have expected." Oh, jeez,  _that_ was a compliment. Startling as Ghostwriter lightly touched his shoulder, Danny looked up to him to see the man giving a smile. "Apology accepted."

"Good- Good. Now I don't have to worry about being trapped in another poem, at least." He was actually pretty sure he had  _seen_ that book when cleaning. He was also pretty sure he hid it under a couch somewhere. Maybe. Probably. Could have been behind a stack of books on one of the shelves. "So, uh, guess I'll… Guess I'll head out, then."

"Danny." Oh, shit, wait, Ghostwriter knew his first name? Well, technically all ghosts probably did, but all of them just called him 'boy' or 'Phantom' or 'whelp.' "You really should talk to your sister."

"Oh- Oh, right, yeah. Yeah, I should." Jazz… She deserved a  _real_ explanation for everything, and Danny was sure she could help them in her own way. Probably. Maybe. "Right, so, um… Bye?"

Ghostwriter chuckled and gently pushed Danny out the door and- "If you ever need a quiet place to read, my library will always be open for you." With that, Danny found himself floating outside Ghostwriter's library, the doors closing shut behind him- No, not closing. There was a sliver of a crack that showed he could easily push them back open.

"Always open, huh?" Danny had just made a friend who was a ghost. That was… That was great. "See you soon, then, GW."

::

"Door's open!" Opening the door, he had just knocked on, Danny poked his head into Jazz's room and took a quick look around. She seemed to be organizing her backpack for when they went back to school and  _honestly_. "Hey, Danny. What's up?"

"Oh, well, see, I kind of- I maybe thought- It's actually pretty funny-" Danny  _babbled_ as Jazz grabbed him by his wrists and effortlessly steered him into sitting down on her bed. "Rude."

"Yes, I am. Now, what's wrong?" Oh, boy, that was a question. "Anything you want to talk about?"

"Yes- No- Yeah. No, yeah, yes, there is." Right. He just had to tell her… Well. "I… I kind of think there are some things we should talk about. It… It might take a while, though." Everything would mean over a  _year_  of ghost fights, worries, fears, and injuries. "Will you listen?"

"Always." There hadn't even been a second of hesitation, and that was all the courage Danny needed to relax against the bed and give a grin.

"Well, it all kind of started last year. You probably remember when Mom and Dad couldn't get the portal to work, yeah? The whole accident? It- I mean, you've probably figured it all out by now, but there's a bit more to it all…"

"You have my attention for as long as you need it, Danny." Right. That- Well. That was all he really needed, right now.

"Okay, so it all started with Mom and Dad's bad engineering and this stupid button."


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonjour, mes chers! Sorry for such the long wait! I was getting back into school and my job and boy is life getting exhausting! Midterms just passed, however, so let's hope I can get a little bit of a routine going here again.
> 
> [Just a reminder, I've made a new blog to support me and keep up with all things Guardians! It's a tumblr blog under the name  **theguardiansseries**  and it contains chapters, art, and everything else Guardians. It also contains behind-the-scenes drabbles and snippets from other character's point of views - all of which can be found under the tag 'ftb excerpt'](https://theguardiansseries.tumblr.com/)
> 
> You can also consider joining the group chat I made for all things Guardians at <https://discord.gg/mnDVQXa>
> 
> With that out of the way, enjoy the chapter!

"Have a good day at school!" Yelling back a garbled-out goodbye through whatever he had shoved in his mouth, Danny quickly made his way down the front steps of Fenton Works before running towards the school. As much as he would love to fly there, it was  _way_ too cold to even bother with this early in the morning.

God, winter break was both too short and too long, sometimes. It seemed like both minutes and lifetimes ago that Danny's winter break was starting, and he had been trying to ignore the holidays with everything in him. Maybe he was under some Christmas curse and learning Ghostwriter's lesson had finally broken it or something. Ugh. He'd have to wait an entire year to find out.

It felt like way too long since he had been back to school, though, and a small part of him was honestly looking forward to just hanging out with his friends and being a normal teenager – well, as normal as a teenager could get considering the ghost powers and everything.

Idly thinking on maybe going back to visit Ghostwriter when he needed help on his homework, Danny didn't slow down his quick pace until he was getting close to the school steps, catching his breath as he felt every inch of happiness leave his body as he stared up at the now familiar building. He was definitely back at high school, at least.

"Incoming!" That loud cry was all the warning Danny was given before he suddenly had a best friend wrapped around his shoulders. Danny was eternally grateful for his ghost strength, because otherwise he and Tucker would both be collapsed in a pile of snow. "Danny! Buddy, pal, friend, chum, sport-"

"Who did you piss off and who are you hiding from?" Danny probably shouldn't encourage Tucker's crazy behavior, but it was hard to hold in laughter when Tucker was shifting and moving around him like a demented squirrel.

"Me? Piss someone off? Danny, please, come on. I'm the most likeable person in this entire  _school_. I really don't appreciate-"

" _Foley_!" Biting his cheek to stave off his laughter this time, Danny felt Tucker slap him on the back before he was given a crazy grin.

"And that's our cue to get to homeroom!" With that, Tucker was pulling him along, Danny easily letting him as he kept an eye out for the color black. Somehow, even with him keeping an eye out, Sam still managed to sneak up on him enough to almost give him a heart attack.

" _Jesus_ , Sammy, are you trying to make me use my ghost powers?" Danny accepted the hug anyways, getting a face full of a furry hood that was attached to a coat and had a sheen to it that made it look like it was forever stuck between being black and being purple. It was probably some fake fur made of human skin or something like that, too. "At least Tucker gives warning."

"And I give you impromptu training. You're welcome." Damn. He really had missed these two. Like, yeah, okay, he hadn't been that long since he had seen them, but still. "So, I believe you were catching us up on some ghostly poem drama last night before we ended the call?"

"Oh, yeah, right. There's not much to it." Danny used the rest of the walk to class to quickly explain the basics of what had happened over Christmas with the whole poem incident. When they dropped into their seats in homeroom, he was completely unsurprised to see that Tucker was holding back laughter and Sam was looking offended.

"A ghost messed with my  _memories_? I mean, I'm glad the town didn't really remember that mess and they don't hate you again or anything, but is that why I can barely remember what I did over the holidays? Oh, that's so-"

"Hey, hey, Ghostwriter isn't all that bad." At the look he was given, Danny gave a weak little shrug and half of a smile. "What can I say, I made a new friend. Doing the whole apology thing and spending time at that library probably made it the funnest winter break I've ever had."

"Dude. Now  _I'm_ offended." Tucker, very dramatically, held a hand to his chest. "You don't count our winter breaks as fun?"

"Last winter break you almost had us thrown in juvie." That had been an interesting one to explain if nothing else. It made kind of a funny story. At least, to them, it did, but not so much for their parents when they had picked them up at the local courthouse jail or whatever it had been. "You have your own category of fun."

"I still can't believe there's a ghost out there that can control us all like that." Leave it to Sam to stick to the heart of the matter. "Are we sure he isn't going to do that again? I mean, we can barely even remember what he did."

"You'll probably be fine as long as you don't piss him off," Danny shrugged. "I don't know about you, but I'm pretty good with never again angering the guy who can control reality, although Clockwork did mention there were limits to his powers."

"It's because he'd be overpowered, otherwise, and the universe knows that isn't fair," Tucker said solemnly. Danny was a little disappointed that Sam beat him to it when it came to kicking Tucker's chair. "Hey! No kicking in class!"

"You don't have any proof." Sam crossed her arms and smirked at Danny. "Let's get back to the true heart of this matter where you befriended a guy version of Jazz."

"I did not!" Thinking on his week with Ghostwriter, though, and what he had learned about the guy, Danny supposed that maybe he kind of sort of maybe kind of  _had_. "Shit. I totally did, didn't I? Well, you know what, he might be a kind of friend, but he's still annoying!"

"Hey, at least you have another ghost that isn't out to hunt you down or kill you or anything." Tucker finally got his chair perfectly straight before Sam nudged it  _just_ a bit to the left. "Dammit, Sam!"

"It  _is_ nice to have another friendly ghost on our side. Like, yeah, okay, he's a little weird, but… He can actually be pretty fun." Danny hadn't thought discussing books could even be fun until he and Ghostwriter had almost destroyed a couch arguing about one of the books.

"Fun, huh?" Sam raised a single eyebrow which, really, how the hell did she even manage that? Danny bet she practiced it in the mirror. "I can tell since you spent an entire week with him."

"Whoa, hey, no, I spent five days with him." That didn't really sound all that much better, but Danny was on thin ice to begin with.

"That's a school week," Tucker piped up. "It counts and there's no way I believe that you were just 'organizing books' for an entire week at that place. Spill it. What else did you do over break?"

"Settle down, students." At Lancer's voice, Danny let out an explosive sigh and slumped in his seat. Thank God.

"I never thought I would say this, but thank God, class is starting." Both his friends choked on a laugh, Danny smiling himself. It was nice for things to be normal, again. "Hey, wanna hit the mall after school?"

"Oh, hell yeah! I hear Techtopia has a sale going on." Oh, Tucker. He would never change. "I'm sure there's probably a deal going on at the Hot Topic there, too."

"Please," Sam snorted, looking toward the board at the front of the class before glancing back. "There  _might_ be a new year sale going on, actually."

"Mall it is." A little time to be just a normal teenager was just what the three of them needed. Besides, after ghost hunting, the mall was harmless as could be.

::

"Right. Note to self. The mall is never harmless." Danny dragged himself out of the pile of store merchandise he had crashed into it and waved at the scared cashier at the counter. "Sorry about that. Send a bill to the mayor, I guess? Sorry!"

"None can stop the all-powerful Technus 2.0!" Oh, God, Technus was worse than ever before. Danny seriously might lose his mind if he had to keep this up for too long.

"Yeah, yeah, all hail the megadork. I seriously can't believe your upgraded form is just you with a  _mullet_. Where are you from, the eighties?" Dodging the electronic wires that came after him, Danny grinned at Technus and tried to make himself as annoying as possible. At least he was used to being used as a target, unlike everyone else here. "Ooh, did I hit a sore spot?"

"You will be the first to be crushed under my might, ghost child!" Eugh. That was probably the most annoying moniker he had yet. Well, he guessed his break really was over now. It had been nice while it lasted.

"Yeah, yeah, master of technology. Hey, you know what? It'd be more impressive if you actually ever managed to  _win_!" Quickly dodging a blast of energy, Danny gulped as he felt the searing heat just barely brush his arm. God, he really needed to work on never getting hit by those because they  _hurt_ -

" _Ah_!" At the cry of pain, Danny quickly snapped his head around, eyes wide at seeing Valerie on the floor and sitting up with a hiss of  _pain_.

"Oh, I'm gonna break you in  _half_!" Feeling energy pour into his hands, Danny unleashed half a dozen blasts all at once, viciously pleased when most of them managed to hit Technus on at least some part of his body. "Well? You're after a fight, aren't you!"

So, alright, maybe Danny had the tendency to jump the gun and get too angry and protective and all that, but he was trying to keep the ghostly stuff  _away_ from his friends! They shouldn't have to worry about stuff like this when he was supposed to be here taking care of it!

"C'mon, Technus! You wanted a fight, didn't you?!" Readying more energy, Danny narrowed his eyes when he saw Technus looked  _intrigued_. That was never a good look. He would know, too, after growing up with scientists his entire life.

"Interesting." Technus' gaze flickered to Valerie and Danny was attacking again at once. The  _last_  thing he wanted was for ghosts to put together that Valerie was the Red Huntress. They were less forgiving on ghost hunters than they were on  _him_. "Oh, don't worry, ghost child, I haven't forgotten about you."

"Dude, could you sound any more like a super villain?" Dodging the wires that snapped for his ankles, Danny grunted as he was hit with a blast strong enough to send him crashing into a huge stack of boxes and  _god_ that fucking  _hurt_. Pushing himself up and catching his breath, Danny frowned when he saw he had changed back. "Ugh, why do you never work when I need you to?" Stupid powers.

"Danny?" Freezing at the voice, Danny blinked up at seeing Valerie looking down at him with raised eyebrows and, yeah, right. Phantom crashed and Fenton appeared. Right.

"Ah, hi, Val. So, uh, hey, those ghosts gone yet? I was trying to find Sam and Tucker and suddenly boxes were falling on top of me."

"Yeah, they're both gone." Valerie gave a laugh and held her hand out, Danny smiling as he let himself be pulled to his feet. If nothing else, Valerie had a nice laugh. "You okay?"

"Just another day in Amity Park, I guess." Danny gave Valerie a quick once over, relaxing when he saw that she was just fine. Technus' blast didn't seem to do any real harm to her, which,  _good_. "You good? I saw you go down from that one ghost's attack or whatever it was."

"Knocked off my feet, I guess, but I'm good." Valerie's smile seemed to soften before she suddenly stepped back and dropped Danny's hand and oh, yeah, that- Huh. He had forgotten they were even holding hands in the first place. "So, uh, you were looking for your friends?"

"Yeah- Yeah. I was. Sam and Tuck. My friends." Danny really wished he could clone himself some days, just so he could slap himself. He just was never sure how to  _act_ around Valerie some days. She was kind and sweet and friendly and had a pretty sharp wit and she was also a ghost hunter who absolutely hated his guts with everything in her.

"Right." Valerie looked away and Danny was about to move before he heard her clear her throat with a rough cough. "So, um… You're good at Chemistry and everything, right?"

"What?" At the dry and sour look he was given, Danny gave a slow nod. "I mean, yeah? I usually get by with a low A or sometimes a high B. Why?"

"I was wondering if maybe we could meet up in the library some time and you could run me through a few things? Petricoff is making it way harder than it needs to be."

"Ugh, I know, tell me about it." Danny loved science, don't get him wrong, but that demon that taught the science classes as Casper was pure evil. She probably really was a demon. Danny wouldn't have been surprised. "But, uh, yeah, sure, I can help."

"Great. Exchange numbers?" Valerie was already holding her phone out with a new contact pulled up, Danny fumbling to do the same with his own before they swapped. "Thanks. I know I haven't been the nicest friend lately."

"We all have our rough spots. I mean, it  _is_ high school." Was he alive? Did Technus' last hit kill him? Because he was exchanging numbers with one of the more popular girls in school and she was honestly smiling at him.

"Tell me about it," Valerie laughed, taking her phone back and tossing Danny's to him. It was a close save to keep it from dropping, Danny slumping in relief as Valerie laughed. "Hopefully having scientist parents pays off."

"Yeah." Okay, so, yeah, maybe Valerie was the Red Huntress and all that, but she was still pretty amazing, and she actually seemed to  _like_ Danny. That alone was an impossible miracle considering the only people who had ever really liked him in his entire school career was Tucker and Sam.

"So, hey, do you need to meet up with your friends right this second, or do you maybe wanna grab a bite to eat real quick? I was about to grab something before the whole dick measuring fight took place."

Choking on a laugh, Danny silently nodded as he followed Valerie back towards the food court. Sam and Tucker would be okay for a while yet, and, well, maybe it was time to move on from his puppy crush on Paulina. Valerie's dad had taken her suit away after that whole Pariah mess, after all, so Danny would be perfectly safe dating a ghost hunter.

Heh. Dating. It was the time for New Year's Resolutions and all that Jazz stuff. Maybe he could make a resolution to try a little bit harder to be a normal teenager. Sure, he should probably be worrying about Technus getting away, but he could let his parents handle it or something.  _They_ were the professional ghost hunters, after all.

"You know what, Val? Grabbing a bite to eat sounds  _great_ right now." Food did sound pretty great but being just an average Amity Park teenager sounded even better.

"You're pretty chipper all of a sudden. Should I worry about you being possessed by a ghost or anything?"

"Nope. Just possessed with some good company." Grinning at Valerie's startled laugh, Danny felt something in him relax.

A little time as a normal teenager was just what this new year could use.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bonjour, mes chers! Here's chapter five and chapter six will be coming up in the next hour or so!
> 
>  
> 
> [Just a reminder, I've made a new blog to support me and keep up with all things Guardians! It's a tumblr blog under the name  **theguardiansseries**  and it contains chapters, art, and everything else Guardians. It also contains behind-the-scenes drabbles and snippets from other character's point of views - all of which can be found under the tag 'ftb excerpt'](https://theguardiansseries.tumblr.com/)
> 
> You can also consider joining the group chat I made for all things Guardians at <https://discord.gg/mnDVQXa>
> 
> With that out of the way, enjoy the chapter!

"I still can't believe Vlad bought this place out." It wasn't that Danny  _hated_ Axion Labs or anything, but after dealing with the ghost of a dead puppy they put down, it was kind of hard to bring himself to like them any. "I mean, what is he up to?"

"You know, I'd really like to have a day where you  _didn't_ become your parents and get paranoid about ghosts and their plans. You realize you sound like your dad, right?" Sam was looking utterly unapologetic at the  _lies_ that were coming out of her mouth. "All your missing is the orange jumpsuit."

"Didn't he give you one as a Christmas present, this year?" Traitors. Danny's best friends and closest confidants were  _traitors_. "You should wear it for Halloween next year. You can go as a ghost hunter."

"Isn't the point of Halloween to go as something I'm  _not_?" Danny might not be a ghost hunter like his parents or the Guys-in-White or anything, but, come on. He protected the town and caught ghosts for not even a  _living_. He was a ghost hunter. "Seriously, though. You guys know Vlad is probably using this place to run some secret experiments on ghosts or something like that."

It wouldn't surprise him if the man was. Vlad was rich and powerful and all that shit, but he was also an insane fruit loop who seemed to think he could do whatever he wanted and get away with it. Now,  _suddenly_ , they were visiting Axion Labs on a school field trip? Suddenly it was  _Danny's_ class that was there? That reeked of suspicion. "I just have a bad feeling about this."

"A Fenton with a bad feeling? Should I be worrying about any ghost attacks?" Startling at the words more than anything else, Danny looked over to see  _Valerie's dad_.

"Oh, hey, look, I think one of our classmates wants to ask us something." Sam, the heartless traitor, grabbed Tucker by the hand and left Danny to what was probably going to be the most awkward and threatening talk by an adult he'd ever had as a human.

"Ha- Ha! Hey there, Mr. Gray!" Danny swallowed and tried to calm himself down. He had faced far worse things than a protective dad, after all, right? "What, uh, what can I do for you? Sir?"

"I've noticed that you and my daughter have been spending more time together, lately." Oh, god, please, no. "I just wanted to make sure I don't have to worry about any funny business."

"Oh, uh, no- No. We're just- We're still just friends, and stuff, and-" Danny snapped his mouth shut as the man raised a hand.

"I meant ghost wise." Oh, man, that was even  _worse_. "Valerie's had a hard time with the ghosts that attack Amity Park, especially when they cost me my job at one point in my life. I don't want any of that Fenton ghost business to interfere with her life."

"Trust me, sir, we're totally on the same page about ghost business and it not affecting Valerie." The  _last_ thing Danny wanted was to deal with the Red Huntress again. Like, okay, he could understand  _why_ Valerie had started the whole ghost hunting thing, but things were finally settling down! In fact, Danny was almost certain that her dad had taken away her suit, which meant way less worry for him.

Plus, Danny was getting better control of his powers, the ghosts were becoming less of a danger, and Danny knew that he could finally keep his friends and family safe without having to worry about them getting hurt by all of this. Things were  _good_ , so he wasn't too worried about Valerie running off to pick a fight where there wasn't one.

"I promise you, sir, I'll be keeping the ghost stuff away from her as far as I possibly can." Valerie's father seemed to study him and look him up and down for a moment before patting his shoulder.

"You're a good kid, Danny. I hope I see more of you around." Huh. That sounded like he just got roundabout approval to date Valerie. Did he just get roundabout approval to date Valerie? It sounded like her father just gave him approval to date her. That- Okay. Cool. That was cool.

"Right, er, yes- Yes, sir!" The man walked away to probably go continue doing his work, Danny staring after him for a moment before shaking his head and alright, that had certainly been something. Danny couldn't help but mutter a little 'weird' under his breath as he looked around to see where the rest of the class had gotten off to.

It was actually kind of cool to explore Axion Labs and see all the science and stuff they were up to, especially considering they were working on space exploration lately, but Danny couldn't even enjoy himself. Who knew what Vlad was using this research for.

"Hey, Danny! They got this cool jetpack rocket thing over here!" Looking around quickly, and spotting where Tucker was waiting, Danny's eyes widened at just what he was talking about and that was  _so cool_.

Danny managed to enjoy himself for almost an hour as they got into the science behind their space research, but of course this was Danny and his life could never be enjoyed for very long before his worries came speeding back at full force.

They were just starting to head to another section of the building, which was shaping up to be just as sleek and shiny as the rest of it, when Danny felt Sam grab his wrist and pull off into a corner between two large databanks. "Are we about to have some movie moment where you tell me someone is following us?" Even as he joked, Danny was already scanning around them. He hadn't  _noticed_ anything strange, and there didn't seem to be anyone paying them attention. Mostly it was tired security guards and even more exhausted scientists.

"What? No. Your life isn't a movie, Danny." Hey, now. "If anything, it's a Saturday morning cartoon with a poorly contrived plot and even poorer writing."  _Hey_. "No, look, you just- You need to be careful around Valerie."

"C'mon, Sammy, not this again." Danny groaned as he scrubbed his hands down his face, shaking his head. "Sammy, I thought we got over the whole jealous thing-  _Ow_." Clutching at his right arm where he was very solidly punched, Danny pouted at a completely unapologetic Sam.

"You deserved that and you know it." Yeah, he totally did. "You know I'm not jealous. Unless you want to have that very uncomfortable talk about feelings and emotions, again?"

"Ugh, no thanks." Having one 'We're just friends, so I guess we can finally stop crushing on each other and please let's not make this awkward!' talk was enough for one lifetime and all the ones after that. God. That had been such a long conversation and Danny was beyond grateful that both he and Sam had made a pact to never mention the tears shed by both of them that night. "Sorry. Still, I mean, come on. She's not that bad."

"That's not what I'm worried about." Sam crossed her arms and rubbed at the skin where goosebumps were rising, Danny frowning. It wasn't  _that_ cold in here. "She just… She really hates ghosts, Danny. She really,  _really_ hates ghosts. If she ever found out about you-"

"Which she  _won't_." Danny knew the price of his secrets and they were ones he wouldn't be telling anyone. Enough people knew who he was, and he knew that if the ghosts knew just how big of a wreck they could make his life, then they would tell the whole town with no hesitation. He was honestly surprised Spectra or Walker hadn't tried that, yet. "It'll be fine, Sammy."

"Will it?" Oh, jeez. Danny hadn't thought Sam would get so worried about all of this. Glancing around to make sure no one had noticed they were missing, Danny stepped forward to pull Sam into a tight hug. "I don't want anything to happen to you. It takes work to find new friends, you know."

"And we all know how much you hate putting effort in being social." Danny laughed at the swat to his side even as Sam hugged him back. "I get it, Sammy. Just… trust me, okay?"

"You sure? You tend to get a bit stupid around the people you like." Yeah, well, that was true, but there were limits when it came to being a little bit stupid. "It looks like you're really starting to like her, Danny."

"It'll be  _fine_." The ghosts weren't that much of a threat, Danny was getting more control over his powers, and Valerie didn't seem to hate ghosts as much as she used to. It wasn't perfect, but things would be okay.

::

He was an idiot. Danny was an  _idiot_. Trust me, he had said. It'll be okay, he had said. He had told Sam, and then eventually Tucker, that things were fine, that he and Valerie were okay, and this was fine. It had been going  _great_ , and then Danny had forgotten that he was the half-ghost little freak that wasn't allowed to have life be good to him.

It hadn't even been a  _week_ before everything had gone to  _shit_. Now Danny could only stare at his hands as he panted harshly through the stale air of his bedroom and tried to figure out where it had all gone so wrong. It had been going so  _well_ in the beginning.

He and Valerie had been getting closer and spending more time together and Danny had started to believe that something was really  _there_  for them. He had overheard her that one day and Valerie had been willing to give up  _ghost hunting_ for him, and then fucking  _Technus_ had come in and  _ruined everything_ -

No… No, Technus hadn't ruined things. He had just been the one to show Danny how wrong he was about all of it. It was one of the tougher fights he had been in lately, and they had all ended up fighting in  _space_. He didn't even have a chance to enjoy it because he had been trying to destroy that stupid satellite that could have ruined  _so much_ ,and he ended up fighting  _both_ of them and he had almost-

He had hurt her. He had  _hurt her_. He hadn't even thought about it, before, but just how much power did he have? Was he supposed to be this powerful? None of the other ghosts were ever really a huge threat to him anymore, so just how much of a threat was  _he_?

Ha, well, he already knew the answer to that one, didn't he? He had  _seen_ how much of a threat he could become. Just because he was no longer going to become destroy-the-world evil didn't mean he still wouldn't have the power Dan did. Fuck, he had power now that Dan didn't have until  _years_ later. He had  _defeated_ Dan when no one else in  _the world_ could. That… What did that mean for him?

"Danny?" Quiet knocking on the door startled him out of his thoughts, Danny swallowing as he heard Jazz's soft voice. "You in there? Sam and Tucker texted me. They thought that maybe you would want to talk?"

Unable to even think of  _anything_ he could say, Danny instead wrapped his arms around himself. For as much as he loved his sister, she couldn't help with something like this. God, and the only 'ghost therapist' was fucking  _Spectra_. No doubt she'd get a kick out of all of this when they next met.

The freak who couldn't control his powers. The little weird child who didn't know where he belonged. Collapsing back onto his bed, Danny stared up at the glow-in-the-dark stars that barely glowed anymore, the edges becoming blurred and undefined in the darkness of his room as the sun really began to set.

"Stupid." He finally got up into space and he didn't even get to enjoy it. There was a peaceful quiet in his room that lasted for a wonderful thirty seconds.

"Danny? Are you even in there?" Throwing his hands over his face, Danny stared at the backs of his eyelids for what felt like an eternity before he was triggering his transformation into his ghost half. "Danny! I know I just heard you change! I can  _see_  the light coming out from under your door, young man!"

Just as the door began to open, Danny triggered his intangibility, falling through the floors and ceilings until he was in the basement. The lights were off since his parents weren't there at the moment, but that just meant it was lit up only by the active ghost portal which… was sort of amazing.

Setting his fingertips against the energy, Danny frowned as he almost felt like he was being  _pulled_ towards the portal. "I'm not that much of a ghost." Great. He was talking to thin air. Again. "Might be more of one than I thought, though."

Pressing both palms up against whatever the Ghost Zone was really made of, Danny breathed out slowly as he glanced upstairs at the sound of Jazz's heavy footfalls. He just… He'd talk to her later, but right now he needed someone who  _wouldn't_ have an opinion about all of this.

"Doors are always open, huh?" It hadn't been too long since he had last been there, but… Maybe Ghostwriter wouldn't mind a friendly chat?

It was better than thinking about how he'd always grow up to be Dan, in some way. He didn't want to think about that.

No. Right now a chat with a ghost who didn't hate him sounded perfect.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Just a reminder, I've made a new blog to support me and keep up with all things Guardians! It's a tumblr blog under the name  **theguardiansseries**  and it contains chapters, art, and everything else Guardians. It also contains behind-the-scenes drabbles and snippets from other character's point of views - all of which can be found under the tag 'ftb excerpt'](https://theguardiansseries.tumblr.com/)
> 
> You can also consider joining the group chat I made for all things Guardians at <https://discord.gg/mnDVQXa>
> 
> With that out of the way, enjoy the chapter!

"Here I was starting to think that you had forgotten where I was." Ghostwriter stood there looking like a carbon copy of a disappointed Jazz with crossed arms, a small frown, and drawn in eyebrows. It would have been hilarious if Danny hadn't felt a small amount of guilt at how Ghostwriter seemed to have been actually  _waiting_ to see Danny again.

"Nice job on dodging the word lived." Danny really couldn't handle serious right now, though, and he was pretty sure his hands were still shaking. "So, uh, hey, you know that whole 'my door is always open and you're free to visit' thing you were talking about? Is that still open?"

"Unlike many of my fellows, I'm not in the habit of saying one thing and doing another." So that was a yes, then? Danny was about to ask for clarification before he watched Ghostwriter's posture melt, the ghost stepping aside as the door opened more widely. "Of course you're welcome back. I had just assumed it would be a touch earlier."

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm- Look, man, I'm sorry about that. Things were pretty busy the last week or two of my life." January was already reaching its end and Danny had somehow managed to fuck his life up even more than it had been before. At least he was excelling in  _one_ area of his life.

"Well, I believe at this point you've learned that I rather like hearing stories. I'd be willing to listen if you wish to share." God, he was so pretentious. Danny kind of hated that he was already smiling as he followed Ghostwriter deeper into the library.

"Yeah, that might actually kind of help. I mean, not unless you're planning to psychoanalyze me or something." There was a quiet sound that could have been a laugh, but when Danny darted forward to see Ghostwriter's face, all he saw was a creepily calm expression.

"I certainly have no plans to, if that reassures you. Come on. I have a reading area set up just behind the history shelves."

"Because history puts people to sleep?" Danny felt victorious as he didn't hear Ghostwriter say anything back. "Knew it- Oh, whoa, hey, those actually look like nice couches. The last ones were like, ugly."

"They were certainly aged," Ghostwriter sighed, settling down on one of the couches that looked like it could either be black or purple. Danny stopped caring about the color when he felt how  _soft_ they were, holy shit. "My brother helped me to locate some new ones. I'm not sure I like the positioning of them quite yet, but they are no doubt comfortable to work on."

"You talk like a college professor and it's weird. You know that, right?" Danny squirmed and wiggled around until he was tucked up in his own corner, legs dissolving into one another to form a tail that curled around itself. Danny tried not to think too hard about how he hadn't really consciously decided to do that. "At least it's cleaner in here. No more dust?"

"Not on this level of the library, at least," Ghostwriter hummed, attention on his laptop even as he talked to Danny. "I believe you were about to tell me a riveting tale about all your troubles and woes of the last few weeks?"

"Nerd." It was a bit better that Ghostwriter wasn't looking at him, though. It somehow made it easier for Danny to tell him… everything. Technus, Valerie, the whole ordeal in space, and his  _powers_  - he told him everything he could. By the end of it he wasn't sure if he felt better or not, but his hands weren't shaking anymore, at least.

"I mean, it's so  _stupid_ , you know!" Danny slumped further down on the couch, arms crossed as he glared at the ceiling. "The first girl I like never even notices me, the second girl I  _thought_ I liked turned out to just be a really good friend, and now this one is giving me up for  _ghost hunting_." The irony was so strong it  _hurt_. "I have such bad luck with girls, man."

This time Ghostwriter  _definitely_  laughed - well, it wasn't a laugh so much as it was a  _snort_. It was kind of funny. "Perhaps you ought to think about pursuing one who  _isn't_ a girl, then."

"What?" What was that supposed to mean? "What do you- Oh.  _Oh_. Well, uh, you see, um, maybe- Oh, jeez." That was something he had never really thought about, really? That was very not an expected topic of conversation.

Danny was saved by anymore of his stuttering speech as Ghostwriter  _laughed_  a full and loud laugh, hand clutching at his chest as he slightly bent over. Danny was pretty sure it was the first time he hadn't seen the guy perfectly composed. "Oh, mon petit, you're absolutely precious."

"I- What? No? Shut up!" He wasn't some cute, blushing girl, or whatever, and he didn't like guys like…  _that_. "Just- Shut up." Ghostwriter only laughed even more, Danny tucking and curling back into his corner of the couch. There was more he wanted to tell about what had happened, and this was probably going to be the only time he'd be able to do it. Maybe he'd get lucky and Ghostwriter wouldn't hear him over his own laughter.

"I'm afraid of how dangerous I am." The air fell silent and still, Danny swallowing as he looked down to hide his face. A part of it was also where he didn't want to see Ghostwriter's pity. "I mean… You've seen my powers back when we fought."

"I… was certainly surprised by some of what I saw. A lot of your powers are unique even by ghostly standards. I don't think I've ever seen anything like that sound attack you used."

"The- Oh, yeah, the Ghostly Wail." At the scrunched-up look that was a touch too close to judgment, Danny frowned. "Hey, I didn't name it."  _Technically_ , Dan named it. "Look, I just- These powers are getting more dangerous-  _I'm_ getting more dangerous. I can really hurt people. I mean I can really…  _really_  hurt people." He'd learned that one the hard way.

"Yes. You are dangerous." Gaze snapping up, Danny felt like his heart was in his throat as he looked at Ghostwriter's serious expression. "You could easily kill someone with the power you have now."

"I…" Fuck. He could, though, couldn't he? If Valerie hadn't been wearing that powerful suit of hers, then he could have… "What if I-"

"You never will." The tone was absolutely certain and completely unwavering. "Oh, mon petit, you could never kill anyone."

"You're wrong." Danny had seen his future, or at least, he had seen one of them. Clockwork had been careful in what Danny had seen, but he knew when he had fought Dan. He had killed people in that time. Dan may have been fused with Plasmius, as well, but his name had been  _Dan_. It had always been Danny in control and he had turned them into a monster.

"I'm not." Ghostwriter's tone hadn't wavered once. "You're aware of how much power you have. You  _know_ you're dangerous, and that's why you'll never kill anyone. Ignoring the fact that you care far too much for one so young, you gained incredible power and immediately used it protect people. You're rather like Andrea in that regard."

"I- What?" Soundless ClockAndrea? Why would he be  _Soundless Clock_  Andrea? "I mean, I guess I sorta can be, sometimes?"

"She never wished harm upon anyone. Until the very last, she would work to give people the chance that others never gave her. I saw the words that made up your past, Danny. I know some of what you've gone through, and I know that just like her, you will always fight to give people a chance they don't deserve. You rather seem the type who fondly believes in second chances."

Danny felt the itch and burn behind his eyes that embarrassed him more than anything Ghostwriter said. Quickly clearing his throat, Danny looked away, mumbling a quiet, "Thanks."

"Of course. Now, I believe you mentioned something about being in space? You told me you wanted to be an astronaut, didn't you?"

"Oh, uh, yeah, I did- I do. Sort of. Um, yeah." Danny knew the other was giving him a distraction, but he was grateful for it anyways. "So, I already told you how I wanted to go and explore space and everything thanks to Star Gazers."

"I do remember, yes." Ghostwriter seemed like he was  _smug_ , but Danny wasn't willing to put effort into figuring that one out. He was still just trying not to cry. "At least there was one good thing from that fight."

"Sort of. I didn't exactly get time to stick around, but it was… Oh, man. I wish you could have seen it. Like, we think we know what it'll be like because of movies and everything, right? But I was suddenly up there and it- I was weightless, but it's  _completely_ different compared to Ghost Zone physics.

"Ghostwriter, it was  _incredible_. I was suddenly floating in  _space_. Movies and books and star gazing can't even come  _close_ to preparing you for that. Like, you don't really think about it, but there are entire  _worlds_ out there! Earth is so big and so huge and so  _diverse_ and we're just  _one_ planet."

He felt almost stupid getting carried away like this, but Ghostwriter was smiling and had his complete focus on him, now. "Just- I could see the stars, Ghostwriter." There had been whole  _worlds_ out there, just… waiting. "I could see the stars and I knew some of them were planets. There were planets that were so far away, but they were close enough that one day we might actually  _live_ on them."

A few glimpses. He had only managed to catch a few glimpses, but for those moments the entire fight had faded away. He had forgotten about Technus and Valerie and the satellite. He had even forgotten he was  _Phantom_. He had just been that kid who loved the stars and wanted to know what was out there.

"I saw the sun. It- I could see Earth below me and oh, man, it was just… You never realize how big it is and how  _small_  you are, but it was so incredible. I saw the Earth and behind it I saw the sun rising up and it was just…" Danny didn't have the words to describe that image of the sun rising over the Earth as it had been doing for longer than they could comprehend.

"Beautiful." The word was soft and quiet and as fragile as everything inside him felt, but Danny nodded and managed to give Ghostwriter a smile.

"Yeah. It was beautiful." The word felt almost inadequate when he said it, but it was still… perfect. "It was all perfect and I'm never going to be able to see it again."

"What do you mean?" Ghostwriter frowned, sitting up a little more, now. "You hardly seem like the type to give up on your dreams."

"Ghostwriter, I'm…" Danny gestured down at himself. His  _tail_ was still curled up around him and his skin was  _glowing_. "With everything that's happened, I'll never be able to go up on a sanctioned flight. Even if I got my grades up, which, yeah, fat chance of that, the physicals would show that I'm not  _normal_."

Maybe he could have gotten his grades up, but there was no faking lab results with  _NASA_. "They'll never send a  _ghost_ up into space, but…" Danny bit his lip, trying to hold the words in. He had already unloaded so much baggage onto Ghostwriter. He didn't need anymore.

"But?" Ghostwriter had a small little smile, tilting his head and looking like he honestly  _cared_ about what Danny was going to say.

"But the Ghost Zone  _is_ kind of like my space." The words were out of him before he could stop them, and after that he knew there was no stopping it. "I mean- We're in another  _world_ right now. This is a  _new world_." The Ghost Zone had been so goddamn terrifying at first, but whenever he remembered that this was a place humans had never explored, how could he not be amazed? It was a new world he was  _allowed_ to explore.

"I mean, it doesn't really hit sometimes, does it?" This was a place where  _ghosts_ lived. That was- It was so  _cool_. "This world is so completely different from our own. It's- Isn't that just  _amazing_? This is a world that  _you guys_ probably don't even know that well, yet."

Just the fact that there were ghosts who could control time was amazing in of itself, but along with everything else in the Ghost Zone? This was a world he  _could_ explore, and no one would be able to stop him or say he wasn't fit for it. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm still trying to get control of my powers and everything, but one day I'd just… I'd love to see what else is in this world."

"Oh, mon petit." Ghostwriter's voice was hushed, and Danny immediately felt his entire body flash with heat as his heart sped up again. God, he had been so- He had gotten so caught up and he had forgotten he was talking to a guy he barely even  _knew_. "You really do love all of this, don't you?"

"Sorry- Sorry. That was probably pretty boring listening to me ramble like that, huh?" Rubbing at the back of his neck and trying to not just run away like he really,  _really_ wanted to, Danny forced himself to meet Ghostwriter's gaze and grin. "There's not really anyone else I can talk about this with."

"I've been known rather well for my ability to keep secrets," Ghostwriter said quietly, a laugh in his words. Danny let himself really focus on him, noticing the smile. "Keeping yours won't be too much trouble."

"I…" God. Now Danny felt  _really_ guilty about destroying that first book, considering how amazing Ghostwriter was being. "What's those words mean? The ones you keep saying?"

"You might have to narrow it down as there are quite a few words in the English language." He took it all back. Ghostwriter was a jerk.

"Pretty sure the words weren't English." Danny watched as Ghostwriter frowned before he blinked and his face loosened up.

"Oh! Mon petit, you mean?" Ghostwriter gave an amused little smirk that was equal parts confusing and annoying. "It's French."

"You're French?" Ghosts could be French? Well, actually, yeah, that kind of made sense, but it was hardly  _Danny's_ fault that he kept running into American ghosts. Probably American ghosts? Actually, Technus had a pretty weird accent.

"I used to be." Startling at the tone more than the words, Danny frowned as he noticed the look on Ghostwriter's face. It… wasn't a  _bad_  look, but Danny knew the expression secrets caused. "We should make an adventure out of it."

"Wait, what?" Back up, hold on, Danny had been having a revelation, and suddenly Ghostwriter was talking about  _adventures_? "I'm not Winnie the Pooh, here."

"Oh, hush. I merely meant that we could make an adventure out of exploring the Ghost Zone. My brother, Randy, he likes to explore this world, and he knows of the more, hm,  _interesting_ parts of the Ghost Zone. His adventures tend to make for excellent novel inspiration and I've been on one or two of them myself. They're a great chance to relax and experience something new and-"

"Yeah." The word was more like a quiet breath than anything, but Ghostwriter still stopped and looked back at him. "The exploring thing? Yeah." Danny knew he could maybe one day make friends with the ghosts, but he hadn't expected to have a  _friend_ that was a ghost. It wasn't all that bad. "That sounds great, Ghostwriter."

"I'm glad." With that, Ghostwriter was launching into describing whatever book he had been reading, Danny fighting off a laugh as he nodded and began to listen. His last few weeks may have been hell, but just sitting here in a place where he knew no one would find him? That… That was way better than talking to Jazz and having his thoughts and reactions picked at.

Damn. He really would have to thank Clockwork and suffer through an 'I told you so' look. Silently watching Ghostwriter flap his hands about and talk even faster, though, Danny decided that would be a fair price for a new friend.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Don't forget, I've made a new blog to support me and keep up with all things Guardians! It's a tumblr blog under the name  **theguardiansseries**  and it contains chapters, art, and everything else Guardians. It also contains behind-the-scenes drabbles and snippets from other character's point of views - all of which can be found under the tag 'ftb excerpt'](https://theguardiansseries.tumblr.com/storysupport)
> 
> Enjoy the chapter!

"I'm sorry, Aragon was looking for a  _bride_ and he chose your friend  _Samantha_?" The incredulous tone Ghostwriter had made Danny feel much more reassured that he hadn't exaggerated what hell he had gone through the last few days. He was never going to judge a beauty contest again, that was for sure.

"You know she'll kick your ass if she ever knows you call her that, but, yeah. I guess he had this idea that whatever girl I picked would be the perfect bride because I'm half ghost? I dunno, man, I wasn't paying attention too much with the whole dragon thing that was going on."

"Of course you chose her through some convoluted accident, as well. That does seem to be par for the course for your life." The fact Ghostwriter gave a dramatic little  _Jazz_ sigh was the truly insulting part of that.

"Hey, not every part of my life is an accident." Danny forced the lie out and prayed that Ghostwriter dropped the subject instead of calling him out on it.

"Mm." Alright, judgmental humming wasn't  _technically_ a callout, so Danny would let it pass for now. "What are you writing so furiously in?"

"Huh? Oh." Danny looked down and then up from where he was writing in his journal. "It's a stupid psycho thing that my sister's been making me do."

"Ah. She's been making you document your ghostly encounters for personal reflection?" Ghostwriter had to be speaking like that to purposefully trip Danny up. No one  _casually_ spoke like that. "I'll take your baffled expression as agreement."

"You talk like you're older than my  _parents_." Which was  _old_ , as far as Danny was aware. "How old even  _are_ you? A hundred?"

"Depends on if you mean physically or mentally." There must have been some sort of complicated expression on his face, because Ghostwriter  _laughed_. Danny had found that most of the ghost's laughter had come from Danny's confusion. "I'm joking, Phantom. Mentally and physically I'm twenty-two, but chronologically I would be… What year is it?"

"Dude, you don't even know the year?" Danny flipped his journal around to have the papers facing out so Ghostwriter could see the date, the ghost nodding slowly once he read it

"I'd be close to my fifties if I was alive? I became a ghost in 1983, I believe…" What a nice, avoidable way of saying he died, which, yeah, yep, nope. Danny did not want to think about how he was technically talking to a dead guy.

"Right. Right, uh, yeah, Jazz has been making me write things down about the ghosts and stuff, so I can, I dunno, have a safe place to sort through it all?"

"Oh! She's been having you keep a diary, then?" It was very tempting to throw his  _journal_ at Ghostwriter's face. Danny resisted, however, so that Ghostwriter didn't get the satisfaction. "Is it helping?"

"I… I think so. I mean, it's not hurting anything, and I guess I do kind of understand the motivation of the ghosts once I go back and read about it all. I'm more objective, I guess, when I'm reading it instead of telling it." Danny scribbled down his sudden thought about what a douche Aragon had been before looking back to Ghostwriter. "Talking it out helps, too."

"That doesn't surprise me. Talking over an event can help process it more than simply writing and thinking about it. When talking, you have an outside party that's able to help you process the emotions more so than you would be able to do on your own."

"Uh… huh. So, hey, quick question, how many psychology books have  _you_  read?" Because that had definitely been some psychology babble.

"More than I care for," Ghostwriter sighed – a great, dramatic exhale that had Danny choking back a laugh. "The nineties were rather boring."

"I'll take your word for it. The talking thing does help, yeah, but you're not- You're not like bored or sick of it or anything, are you? I mean, I can shut up or talk about something else, like the latest published books that everybody hates."

"As amusing as that would be, I like listening to the stories you tell me." Ghostwriter gave him a grin - not a smirk, but a full on  _grin_. "They're great inspiration."

"Oh. Good. I mean, yeah, they're great stress relief and hold on wait a second." Running the last exchange over in his head, Danny narrowed his eyes. "Inspiration?"

"While poetry is my preferred medium of choice these days, it's not  _all_ I write. I used to strictly be a prose writer, when I was younger - mainly fiction. I could never grasp the subtle art of nonfiction, I'm afraid."

"Yeah, yeah, okay, shut up. You write books? Like, actual, honest-to-god books?" Alright, yes, Danny knew the man had the whole tortured poet thing going on, but he didn't think he was an  _actual_ writer.

"Yes, I write 'honest-to-god' books." Ghostwriter was fighting off a bout of laughter, which, alright, that was fair. "You wouldn't believe the inspiration that can be lent towards the mystery and crime genre once one becomes a ghost."

"Huh." That… did make sense, Danny supposed. "Could I read some of your books sometime, then?" Maybe they were good. If all Ghostwriter did was sit in and read and write, then his book would have to at least be  _decent_.

"Of course." Ghostwriter's nice little smile turned  _evil_. "If you can find them, of course. Oh, yes, it's possible they will be under a pseudonym, as well."

"You're so  _mean_." Danny could feel the smile he was fighting off, but he thought he hid it rather well.

"And whoever said I was nice?" Ghostwriter leaned back in his own seat and propped his cheek on a closed fist, lips tugged into a smile from the motion. "You were telling me a thrilling tale about dragons and forced brides, I believe?"

As he launched back into the story of Aragon and his sister Dora, Danny couldn't help but think that it was nice to talk to someone who  _understood_. Ghostwriter was a ghost - it was there in his name, after all - but he also understood the human aspect of everything. Danny could vent and complain and talk all he wanted, and he knew that Ghostwriter would be able to understand and keep up with every part of the conversation.

It… was nice. Jazz and his friends never seemed to fully understand the ghost part of things, and Clockwork seemed to miss the human part of it all, but Ghostwriter never did. He and Danny clicked together in a way that reminded him of when he met Sam and Tucker and knew they were going to be his best friends.

It was good. It was nice to have ghosts that he could  _talk_  to. It… He had friends in Wulf, Ghostwriter, Dora, Clockwork, and sometimes Johnny and Kitty if they were feeling nice. He was making friends with the ghosts and it was  _great_.

Sure it was slow and it would take time to get to know them all and really call them friends, but they definitely weren't his enemies anymore. A lot of them seemed to even  _like_ him instead of merely tolerating his presence. It was good.

And, alright, he should probably be wrapping up his conversation with Ghostwriter and heading home, but another hour or so wouldn't hurt anyone. Besides, Danny wanted to see if he could get Ghostwriter to tell him just where those novels were.

::

"'Another hour or so won't hurt.' Fenton, you're an idiot. An absolute idiot." While talking out loud didn't make Danny feel better, it did keep him focused on finding the  _right_ way home instead of getting lost, again. "Three hours! How do you spend  _three hours_ talking about  _poetry_!"

Alright, Danny could argue that they hadn't strictly been speaking of poetry the  _whole_  three hours. It had started that way, and then Danny had mentioned the Skulk and Lurk and Sam's own poetry, and then he had started talking about Sam, and then Tucker, and then how they had all met- It had been a very extensive rabbit trail, he was realizing.

While getting distracted talking to Ghostwriter for so long wasn't really a  _problem_ , it was a concern when his curfew was fast approaching, and he still had almost forty minutes of travel at  _least_  until he was home. It was already a little past nine, and he knew that while he was fast, he wasn't fast enough to beat the clock and play it off as him having been in his room the whole time.

"Focus, Fenton." He could do this. He just had to follow the route he knew, and he would get back safe and sound. Although… If he was remembering from their last attempt at a map, there  _was_ a nice little shortcut right through Pariah's Keep.

"Okay. I can either go straight, or I can turn here and cut through the castle of the former Ghost King." Pariah Dark  _was_ locked up, and Danny was Clockwork-certain that they wouldn't be dealing with him anytime soon.

Triggering his transformation enough to dig out his phone and check the time, Danny decided that the shortcut was the lesser of two evils. He'd rather face an angry Pariah Dark than angry parents.

It really was the quicker route, and Danny must have been getting faster because it took far less time than it once would have. The castle was also a lot more beat up than Danny remembered. It was like every ghost in the Zone had tried to tear the place down which, thinking on it, was rather accurate.

It was still standing, at least. It was also kind of cool, Danny mused. Sure, it was a ruined old castle, but he hadn't really had time to study the murals on the walls before. He would have thought a castle would have been all about tapestries, but it seemed like Pariah Dark and maybe whoever had come before him had been more about murals.

Considering he was making better time than he thought, Danny didn't feel too bad about slowing down and then doubling back to the start of the main hallway. This one, he knew, led to the throne room. It was even more easy to tell judging by the 'story' the murals were telling.

The first one seemed to be mostly colored in shades of green and it seemed to be a picture of the Ghost Zone – sort of. Danny supposed it could have been a more stylized version of the Ghost Zone if it were to look more like the human world. Whatever it was, it had the theme of 'and on the first day!' near printed in bold across it. Danny had a feeling Ghostwriter probably would have loved it - or loved hating it.

The next few seem to be about ghosts forming and the world growing and whatever seemed to be common in every 'in the beginning' myth Danny had ever heard. A few more and he couldn't help but laugh to himself and wonder where the 'Flood' mural was. His laughter died when he paused in front of an image that was so clearly Pariah Dark himself with the crown on his head.

The mural wasn't all that bad, but it was the ten figures in the background behind Pariah that caught Danny's attention. "You guys must have been the ancients, then." He had heard the story from the ghosts during the whole Pariah mess itself, but he still couldn't wrap his head around just who the ancients  _were_. Maybe Clockwork had been one of them? Actually, he should probably ask Clockwork about that, some time, and see why he or the Observants hadn't stepped in. Although, maybe they had.

The ancients could have been the Observants, but that idea that left a foul taste in his mouth. He hadn't really  _met_ met the Observants, but he had heard enough about them from Clockwork to know all he needed to know.

Finally moving on to the next mural, Danny stopped at seeing the mural of Pariah having his crown taken away from him. It wasn't a happy mural by any stretch of the imagination, and Danny wondered who had come back to paint this one once it was all said and done.

Taking another step forward, Danny swore as he tripped over a pile of rubble. He barely managed to catch himself by hovering before he was turning around to see what he had tripped on. A bit of squinting and Danny cautiously judged the rubble to be more murals - ones that must have broken off during his own fight with Pariah.

"Huh." Dropping out of the air, Danny crouched down and tilted his head at one of the broken murals. While the other murals inside the Keep had all seemed to hold together, this one was shattered across the floor. "I wonder what you were supposed to mean."

It looked like it could have been the ancients, but they looked… different. There were ten of them painted across the stone, but they weren't the cloaked figures that looked like they had been copied and pasted. These ancients were all different and had varying sizes and heights and everything else.

It was cracked in a weird way, too - a  _suspicious_ way. The ten figures were all grouped up within a half-circle, but the way it had cracked had made it so two figures were separated from all the rest. It was an even split, too, and Danny wondered if that was really from his fighting with Pariah, or if it had been someone else to do it.

He had still half-thought that the Ancients were just the Observants in disguise, but these new figures didn't look anything like the Observants. The way the mural was, it felt like they were more than  _just_ Ancients. It… was more than that.

Hardly aware that he was leaning forward until he was  _falling_ forward, Danny caught his balance with both his palms flat against the cracked mural-

_It had begun as one with the ambition to see the world safe and protected and it had all spiraled so quickly and it was never meant to be this way and eyes that shone like molten gold reflected nothing except death and hate and loss and pain and the screams echoed to the end of the world and back and how dare they how dare they_ _ **how dare they**_ _do this to him when he had been the one to bring them all truly together and if they wanted to suffer then he would gladly show them suffering and he would make sure_ _ **that they would never forget again**_ -

A sharp smack of pain from his back was what had Danny realizing that he was on his back and staring up at the ceiling, panting and gasping for fresh air he wasn't going to be getting anytime soon. It took a solid seven seconds for him to find his voice and shakily speak to empty air. "What the absolute  _fuck_."

That? That hadn't been his 'active imagination.' That had been- Fuck. Danny didn't know  _what_ that had been. Terrifying? Horrifying?  _Confusing_? Definitely all three, that was certain.

A high-pitched beeping shriek had Danny sitting up with a jerk, eyes wide as he looked around before he realized it was his phone. Calming himself down enough to transform back and grab it, he immediately felt his entire world begin to crumble. He had five minutes to get home.

Hardly a second and Danny was in the air and getting out of the castle as quick as he could, flying towards the Fenton Portal and putting whatever the hell had just happened out of his head. It was probably just some stress induced hallucination and he would be fine after some rest.

Rest… definitely sounded like a good idea. Rest and trying to forget those sharp golden eyes and maybe,  _maybe_ , writing this little event down in his journal.

Just in case.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Don't forget, I've made a new blog to support me and keep up with all things Guardians! It's a tumblr blog under the name  **theguardiansseries**  and it contains chapters, art, and everything else Guardians. It also contains behind-the-scenes drabbles and snippets from other character's point of views - all of which can be found under the tag 'ftb excerpt'](https://theguardiansseries.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Enjoy the chapter!

"I think a threat that's stronger than Pariah is about to wake up." It sounded silly when he said it out loud, but Danny had been thinking on this for a while now and it was the only thing that seemed to make sense after his walk around Pariah's Keep.

"What- Wait, what?" Sam looked surprised and even scared, almost, before her expression dropped and her eyes narrowed. "What kind of a threat?"

"I don't- A  _threat_." It sounded stupid, but it all lined up! Danny had been seeing the signs for weeks and he hadn't even realized what he was staring at until it was almost too late -  _almost_. "Sammy, you have to trust me on this one."

"Uh huh. Why do you think we're about to face a threat, Danny? And give me an exact reason, not a ghost sense sort of reason."

"None of the ghosts have attacked in almost two weeks!" Alright, Sam's groan was unappreciated and wildly unhelpful. "C'mon, Tuck, back me up here. You think it's weird, don't you?" Maybe he was exaggerating a little with it being a Pariah level threat, but it  _was_ weird.

"Yeah. Weird." While Tucker gave strange responses sometimes, that was weird even by their standards. He usually never shut up, but thinking about it, Tucker had been weirdly silent during lunch this time.

"Tucker? You alright, buddy?" The three were in the cafeteria, so Danny had been a little concerned with eating before his food was stolen or shoved down his shirt, but now that he was looking, Tucker had a  _lot_ of papers and notebooks out. "Okay, last I checked February wasn't even over yet. What's with the finals level studying?"

"It's not studying." Tucker was staring down at a packet of papers with utter seriousness, food completely abandoned and ignored beside him. It was, Danny decided, absolutely terrifying. "It's for the student council elections coming up."

Danny didn't even get to open his  _mouth_ before Sam was kicking him, which, alright, he probably deserved that considering he hadn't even known that his  _best friend_ was running for student elections. "Cool- Cool. That's cool. Uh, refresh my memory, which position are you going for?" Because if Tucker was aiming for President, then he had quite the depressing news.

"Vice president. In this school, the VP  _always_ is the one behind the big changes. The jocks can fight for the figurehead position all they want, but  _I_ know what I'm doing."

"Never doubted you for a second, buddy." At least he had done his research, this year. "So, uh, what kind of plans you have in mind? Hopefully nothing that will end up with a changed lunch menu."

"Hey! We agreed to never speak of that moment again! Nothing I did or said as a freshman can be held against me and you know it." Sam glared at him and Danny knew without any doubt that she could kill him anytime she pleased.

"Right, right, so, uh, student council. Vice president. You wanna… talk about it?" That's what supportive friends did, right? Talk about student politics?

"You have time for it?" All three of them seemed to realize how harsh that was at the same time since Danny winced the same moment as Tucker and Sam. "Sorry- Sorry, that was… Sorry, man."

"Yeah, no, hey, I get it. I haven't exactly been around the past few weeks like I should have been." It had been one crazy thing after another, it seemed, but things were settling down, now. "The ghosts haven't been by in almost two weeks, though, so I think I'm good on time for the moment."

"Oh… Right! Well, uh, so first-" The next few words were drowned out by the ringing of the school bell, Tucker looking disgruntled as Sam hid a laugh behind her napkin.

"Raincheck?" Danny grinned, happy when he saw Tucker give a grudging one of his own. "We can talk about it after school. Gaming party at yours?"

"You know it." Sharing a quick fist bump with the both of them, Danny helped Tucker gather a backpack's worth of paper as Tucker looked like he tried to stop himself from smiling  _too_ widely. "Just you wait, man, I have so many ideas on how to keep this place from becoming hell- Oh! I had a few ideas about our, uh, club."

"Club? Tuck, we don't-" Oh.  _Oh_! "Right! The club." Ghost hunting was a club now, then. Great. "Uh, sure- Yeah. That sounds great."

A little gaming time with Tucker while talking about their lives sounded like something that was long overdue.

Unfortunately, the ghosts never stayed quiet for long. What was supposed to be a fun night of gaming turned into six hours of fighting off Technus and his latest plan to use the Gamestop in the mall to take over the internet. It was six hours of his life that he was never going to get back, but he figured he could at least make it up to Tucker by taking him to the mall that, thanks to 'Phantom,' was still there.

Of course, it would have been better if Desiree hadn't shown up and started granting wishes by the fountains. One would think that the town of Amity Park would have learned not to wish for things  _out loud_ , but four hours of hell proved otherwise. Danny was still trying to figure out who wished for walls to be made of  _jello_. He would kick their ass, if he ever figured it out, that was for sure.

After that it was the Lunch Lady causing a riot at one of the local soup kitchens, Ember trying to enslave a group of teenagers in the park, the Box Ghost taking over the post office, and Johnny and Kitty having a fight that almost destroyed an entire city block.

Finally, though, March was here and things were calming down once again. "Tucker- Hey! Tucker! Wait up!" Student elections for next year's positions weren't going to be voted on until late April so Danny had  _plenty_ of time to listen to Tucker's plans and help him out with campaigning and all of that. It would be easier, of course, if Tucker would slow down and  _wait_ for him. "Hey, so, I was thinking that today-"

"You could leave me behind and go off and hunt ghosts on your own? Yeah, sounds perfect, Danny, let's do that." It wasn't the words that hurt so much as the way Tucker sounded so  _bitter_. "Here, you can even get a head start. I'll go home, and you can stand here and wait for the next ghost attack, which should be in, oh, ten minutes? Five, maybe?"

"Okay, no gaming marathon today, then." Danny shook his head, trying to find out where the bitter attitude was coming from and finding himself unable to. He knew it had been a rough few weeks, but it wasn't like any of that was  _Danny's_  fault. "Okay, right, I'll bite, what the hell? I mean, I know I've been busy-"

" _Busy_?" Tucker near knocked Danny over with how fast he turned around. "No, busy would be dealing with the ghosts and then coming to talk to me afterwards. You've been a  _jerk_ -"

" _I've_ been a jerk? You've been avoiding me all day when I've been trying to catch up to you so we  _can_  talk. And I'm sorry, since when am I considered a jerk for taking care of threats that  _no one else_ can?"

"No one else- Do you even  _realize_ \- Do you even  _see us_?! All of this -  _everything_ \- is all your fault! And you're too much of a stubborn jerk to even see that!"

"My… And just  _what_ , Tucker, is  _my fault_?" None of this was his fault! How was  _any of this_ his fault? He had his own stuff to deal with, too, and by the time the fights ended these days, he was too tired to do much more than to make it home and collapse.

What Tucker thought was his fault was something Danny didn't get to hear. Instead he heard a high-pitched whine, saw Tucker look shocked and scared, and then he felt nothing but  _pain_. Pain and fear were the last things he felt before he saw black.

::

"Greetings, prey… I had a feeling that my weapons wouldn't trigger that little detection power of yours."

"Oh, God, of course it's you." Danny's ears were still ringing, and his mouth felt like it was stuffed full of cotton and sand, but he had enough sense to recognize Skulker's voice when he heard it. "And here I thought you finally chased the wrong prey and got your suit destroyed or something."

"Unfortunately for you, that is not the case. No, whelp… You see, I've decided that it was high time that we bring our little hunt to new grounds." Right, Skulker was just going on with his dramatics. That gave Danny at least five good minutes to figure out where the hell he was and why he felt so awful.

The second one he could probably blame on whatever Skulker had used to knock him out. He remembered electricity, just barely, and that was enough. Skulker had probably gone to Technus to have his weapons upgraded, the jerk.

Okay, okay. Focus. He had been leaving school and- Tuck. Tucker. Right. Well, even if they were fighting, he was still sure that Tucker would call Sam and Jazz and some rescue attempt would be put together. At least, that was what he thought until he heard a familiar groan beside him.

"My brains… feel like oatmeal." Pushing himself up faster than he should have, Danny's vision swam as he stared down at where Tucker was lying down next to him.

"Ah, yes. I even brought along a friend of yours for our hunt today. I couldn't have him running to tell others and interrupt our hunt too soon, now could I?"

"Skulker, the second I can see straight I am going to punch you in your  _face_!" Of all the things to happen of course  _Tucker_ would be trapped alongside him! Sam, at least, could have kept pace with him, but Tucker? Depending on where they were, they might just be doomed.

"Maybe once you might have been able to, whelp, but I have the home field advantage." The… The home field advantage? Stomach feeling like it had been taken out of him and dropped off a skyscraper, Danny shot his gaze up towards the sky and saw nothing except green. Green meant that they were in the Ghost Zone, but Skulker wouldn't be so smug if it was just that. "Now, since I like to give my prey a sporting chance, I'll give you a ten-minute head start."

Feeling a tug to his wrist, Danny's gaze snapped over to where Tucker was looking shocked and scared, eyes wide as he stared at the  _handcuffs_ that chained them together. This, Danny realized, just became a lot more difficult.

"Oh, and did I mention your ten minutes began when you awoke?" Skulker's smug, satisfied words had Danny scrambling to his feet, fighting the wave of dizziness that swept over him as he grabbed Tucker's arm and pulled him along as he started to  _run_.

"Danny! Do you even know where we're  _going_?!" Tucker's shouts only had Danny pulling them along faster, because the sooner they got away from Skulker, the better.

"I think that as long as we're running  _away_ from the crazy mecha suit, then it doesn't really matter," Danny yelled back, eyes wide as he tried not to run them into any  _trees_. He had caught glimpses of a forest in the Ghost Zone once before, but since when had there been a  _jungle_? Were they at Skulker's island or lair or whatever it was?

"And how do we know we're not gonna just wind up going in circles!" Feeling a jerk on his arm as Tucker tripped over something, Danny swore as he slowed down enough to make sure Tucker didn't fall before pulling him along again. "Ow-  _Danny_!"

"Just shut up and run, Tuck. We wouldn't even be in this mess if you hadn't been acting like a jerk-"

"You're blaming  _me_  for this?!" Tucker stopped again, and Danny grunted as he felt a sharp tug to his wrist where the handcuff was locked around him. He was starting to hate these handcuffs and he couldn't wait to punch Skulker in the face for this. "This is  _your_ fault, dude."

"My fault? It's  _my_ fault that you've been  _ignoring_ me for the last few days?" Seeing the other ready to reply, Danny sharply shook his head the same time he pulled on the chain of the handcuffs. "We don't have time for this. Just shut up and I'll fly us out of here."

Danny let himself relax before he was triggering his change into his ghost half, except there were no rings - or anything else. Trying again, Danny swallowed as, again, nothing happened. "Oh no."

"Oh no?" Tucker frowned, crossing his arms and bringing Danny's own arm with him. "Why are you saying oh no?" Changing wasn't working, nor was flying, or intangibility, invisibility, ectoblasts, or  _anything else_.

"We might have a problem," Danny finally admitted, looking to the handcuffs and realizing for the first time that they were glowing. "Scratch that, we definitely have a problem."

Tucker followed his gaze after a moment and it seemed to click at once considering the loud swear he let out. "This thing stops your ghost powers?"

"Seems to be the case," Danny hissed, fingers scrabbling against the cuff on his wrist. He almost started swearing when it didn't even budge. "Okay- Okay, just- Don't panic. Just follow me-"

"And who put you in charge?" Tucker looked even more defensive than before as he took a step forward, poking at Danny's chest, and, seriously? "This is my life on the line, too, you know! Why do  _you_ get to make all the decisions?"

"Can we not do this right now?" Danny frowned, batting Tucker's hand away. "Look, I get it, you're pissed I don't get to spend time with you anymore, but we need to get out of here  _before_  Skulker tries to skin us or something. As for the other thing, I get to be in charge because  _I_ know about ghost things."

"And I don't?" Instead of his words reassuring Tucker, the other only seemed to be getting even angrier. As great as it was that they were finally talking, now was  _really_  notthe time. "Dude, I've been right here the entire time! You don't even  _see_ me, but we've been learning all of this stuff at the  _same time_! The  _same pace_!"

"Where is this even coming from?!" Danny finally shouted back, not caring that their ten minutes were probably up and Skulker was on the hunt for them. Skulker was the last thing he was worried about, right now. "It's only recently that we've been fighting like this-"

"Recent?" Tucker's voice was whisper soft before he was yelling again, looking angrier and angrier with each word. " _Recent_ \- It's always been like this! You've always been so damn prideful and full of yourself and it's gotten worse ever since you became 'Phantom.' You think you're  _above_ everything!"

For a second, Danny could only stare at his best friend in shock. Then the shock ended and anger set in. "Above- You have  _no idea_ what I go through!" They could never understand. Tucker and Sam could  _never_ understand what it was like to be half-ghost. They saw him, but they didn't see the aftermath. They  _never saw_. "I'm trying to be 'in charge' because I, at least, know about all these damn ghost things-"

"And I don't?!" They were the same words, but this time Tucker screamed them as if Danny had just  _stabbed_ him. "I've been right here this entire time and learning it all the same time as you! I've been here the whole time  _and you don't even see me_! I'm nothing but the tech guy to you!"

"At least you know what you are!" The words exploded out of him, Danny certain that his powers would have already been reacting if they hadn't been suppressed. "I don't even know if I'm  _alive_ anymore some days-!" Danny's words died in his throat as he saw green energy that was speeding towards them.

Their ten minutes were definitely up, and Danny realized in that moment how loud they had been screaming. He then realized that while these weapons could hurt ghosts, this was technology that could  _kill_  humans, and it was flying right for Tucker's back and  _no_ -

Danny was moving before his brain could make the decision, hands grabbing Tucker by the arm and back of the neck before he was spinning them around to switch places. He then immediately pushed them towards the ground. The blast of energy felt like fire against his skin as it seared across his back, gritted teeth feeling like they would break as he suppressed a scream and hit the ground a second after Tucker.

He didn't give himself time to recover, instead dragging the two of them up before running through the jungle again, trying not to focus on how Skulker's laugh boomed all around them. Danny knew Tucker was trying to say something, but Danny ignored it until he was skidding into a cave opening, knowing the hiding spot was only temporary.

"-alright?!" Tucker's whisper shouting finally sunk in, Danny blinking as he looked over to see Tucker was staring at him with wide, wet eyes and shaking hands. "Dude- Dude, you pretty much just took a  _bullet_ for me."

Staring at him for a minute, Danny finally shrugged and tried for a grin, "I can handle stuff like that." Tucker couldn't. Danny was stronger against these types of things even in his human form.

"But- We were fighting. We were fighting and you still- Ow! Hey!" Watching Tucker clutch the back of his head where Danny had just hit him, Danny gave a mock glare.

"Dude, do you seriously think that I would let you get hurt just because we're fighting?" Danny was definitely pissed at Tucker and he had the urge to drop him off a small hill or something, but even at their worst he would never want Tucker  _hurt_ , let alone  _killed_. "Idiot."

Hearing leaves rustling, Danny jerked them further into the cave, biting his lip at the wave of pain from his back even as he pulled Tucker down to the ground and into the shadows. The two were utterly silent and still as the rustling leaves slowly moved away before they disappeared altogether.

"Okay, we need a plan," Danny finally said, looking to Tucker and giving him a nudge. "Any ideas, VP?" There was a long moment where Danny thought Tucker was going to make a  _thing_ of it before he looked away with a grudging smile.

"Elections aren't until April, you know," Tucker said quietly, Danny beyond grateful that they weren't the type to go into feelings. "Sorry. I-"

"Nope, no, nuh-uh, we don't have time to deal with emotions. You've been a jerk and I've been an arrogant asshole or something and got carried away and forgot to tell you that we're a  _team_ , and you're not just backup."

"I've been a jealous asshole," Tucker finally corrected, looking suspiciously emotional. "And you've been a prideful prick who doesn't like to take suggestions." Ah, much better. "You think I would have learned the first time about being jealous."

The memory of Desiree and her powers sent a shudder through Danny and Tucker both, especially as they remembered the end result. While 'Tucker Phantom' hadn't been bad at first, it had showed Danny that he could get as wrapped up in himself as anyone else. Had he really started slipping that easily, again?

"I haven't exactly given you reason not to be," Danny finally said, sitting up slowly and trying not to show how much his back was hurting him. Tucker probably knew, anyways, judging by his wince. "Tuck… I didn't think I had to say it because I thought you  _knew_ , you idiot."

"As always, you're full of such affectionate nicknames," Tucker grumbled, peeking his head out of the cave. "Looks clear, but I wouldn't be surprised if he had Technus rig up some kind of spying system."

"Yeah, but Tucker, look, man, I'm trying to emotionally connect, here." At the look on Tucker's face, Danny did his best not to laugh. "I'm serious. You're not just tech support."

"Yeah, yeah, man, I know, we're friends and I'm part of the team and-"

"We're not friends." Danny let Tucker's shocked silence sit for a moment before he grinned, giving him a nudge. "We're brothers, aren't we?"

"Oh my god you almost gave me a heart attack." Even as Tucker dramatically clutched his chest, Danny could see the way his eyes were getting wet. He knew his own were the same, so at least they had mutually assured destruction. "This conversation never happened."

"What conversation? Seriously, though, please tell me you have a plan or something, because otherwise we're kind of screwed."

"I don't know how to get these cuffs off, but I do have  _something_." Watching as Tucker twisted and squirmed around, Danny shook his head as the teen finally got his backpack open from where it was stuck on one arm.

"Tell me that you're not about to pull out some plot device to save the day or whatever. I know our lives have gotten kind of crazy, Tuck, but-" A Fenton Thermos was being waved in front of him. A Fenton Thermos that was  _black_ and green. "Whoa. Dude, what…?"

"I told you I've been working on our ghost stuff, too. This is one of the things I was trying to show you, dude." The Thermos, which looked a lot less like a thermos these days, was the same size as the old ones, but had a metal plate that had a circular pattern to it covering the top instead of the lid it used to have. "It's like one of those cool sci-fi kinds of openings, you know? You just a press button, this opens up like a circle thing, and boom, you have a ghost capturing ray."

"Tuck, you're a genius." Taking the Thermos, Danny's grin got even wider as he thought about how much  _work_ must have gone into something like this. "You're my favorite."

"Sweet. I'd tell Sam, but I don't know if the satisfaction would be worth both of our deaths," Tucker laughed, falling silent the same time Danny did. A branch had snapped not far off from where they were sitting. "Wanna take that thing for a test drive?"

"Tuck, you read my mind." Danny grinned as the two of them stood back up, Danny realizing in that moment that Tucker really  _had_ been through it all with him. As Skulker stepped out of the foliage, Danny's grin grew wider. This was going to be fun.

::

"I was wondering when you would be back! Honestly, you could at least give warning if you're going to disappear for weeks on… end." Ghostwriter stared at him and Danny could see the exact moment that he registered Danny's back was bleeding and he was chained to Tucker. "This one must be Tucker, I presume?"

"Oh, cool, you do talk about us!" Tucker's voice was a cheerful little chirp as he stuck his hand out. "Yo. I'm Tucker Foley, Danny's best-friend-slash-brother. You must be the ghostly book nerd he won't shut up about."

"You're going to make me regret bringing you here, aren't you," Danny grumbled, reluctantly amused when Ghostwriter cautiously shook Tucker's hand. "So, uh, hey, do you know how to lockpick handcuffs?"

"I do, actually, yes." Oh, cool. That made this easier. Danny also knew what he was asking Ghostwriter about next time he visited. "I take it those handcuffs were not a choice, then."

"Why- Why would you think it was a  _choice_?" Danny was grateful that Tucker looked just as horrified, but Ghostwriter only looked amused as he opened the door properly for them.

"Who am I to judge another's preferences? Come on, then. It shouldn't take me long. I take it that's been cancelling out your abilities?"

"Yeah, Skulker's a dick," Danny nodded, pulling Tucker into the library and using the handcuff like a leash when it looked like Tucker was about to run off to explore. "Do you have bandages, too?"

"Goodness, you're certainly high maintenance," Ghostwriter sighed, looking amused instead of concerned, thank God. Danny was good enough with all the concern he already got. "I should have something."

"So, hey, you know, you could totally go digital and get rid of half these books - maybe free up some space, even. I mean, paper copies aren't really efficient."

Ghostwriter, after faltering in his steps and looking back, gave Tucker the dirtiest look that could ever be imagined, Danny breaking and starting to laugh when Tucker only beamed back before going in depth about the advantage of technology over books. It was good to have things back to normal.

Danny couldn't wait until they got even better, though.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

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> Enjoy the chapter!

"I can feel your rage from here, Danny," Jazz, as usual, was sounding annoyingly calm as she sorted out piles of wrinkled clothes into neatly folded, color coded piles. Danny had been fighting the urge for the past hour to kick them over. "Having to clean the attic isn't that bad."

"Speak for yourself. We've already taken out  _five trash bags_ full of junk and trash and I'm pretty sure some of it was  _glowing_." Danny kicked his foot out at one of the boxes he had been sorting through, pleased when there was the sound of something inside breaking. He didn't worry much about it being important - if it was in the attic, it was either useless or too old to function. "I think I'd rather be  _grounded_  for missing curfew."

"From their perspective, it seems grounding is a punishment that has yet to work on you since you always have to sneak out for more ghost fighting." Jazz held up a wrinkled, orange dress that looked like it had come straight from one of his parents' old eighties movies. Jazz seemed to be trying to decide what pile to put in it. "Cleaning the attic, however, is a punishment that works on everyone."

"Yeah, well, you don't even have to be here." Danny grabbed their most recent trash bag, holding it open and giving it a little shake to get Jazz's attention. Once she looked over, Danny opened it wider, nodding at the dress that was still being held up. "You could have just told them you came out before curfew to drag me back in."

"Hey, big sisters are supposed to watch out for their stupid little brothers." Jazz wadded up the dress into a ball and threw it at the trash bag, nailing it right in the center. Danny had to work at not laughing when Jazz threw her arms up with a cheer. "Besides, this isn't so bad."

"Of course you think it isn't that bad. You organize stuff for  _fun_ ," Danny laughed, dropping the bag and going back to moving the boxes around. "You know, this is really Technus' fault. We should do something to get back at him. I mean, who  _honestly_ wants to take over the world? That's so much work! My sleep schedule is suffering here, you know!"

"I have a feeling some of that suffering comes from your constant late nights that have nothing to do with ghosts." Did Jazz really have to be so mean to him when he was already suffering?

"I beat that game fair and square and the sleepless nights were worth it. Can we get back to the real subject, here? I mean- We have to do  _something_. He keeps trying to take over the  _world_!"

"I don't think there's much you can do to get back at a ghost like Technus, Danny." Jazz went back to her clothes folding, humming and cooing at whatever she was finding. Danny decided to just focus on his own task - or at least try to. "I wonder why Mom stopped wearing all of these. Some of these dresses are cute!"

"When was the last time you saw Mom outside of a hazmat suit or lab coat?" Danny counted out five seconds of silence before he heard Jazz make that irritated little humming noise that proved he was right, but she didn't want to admit to it. "Face the facts, Jazz, everything in here is either useless or some leftover experiment."

"Do you think forcing Technus to work at a call help center for the day would be enough of a punishment?" Jazz sounded as if she was honestly considering it, Danny stifling his laughter as he pulled over a decaying box that was messily taped and started going through it. "Maybe we should consider getting things together to donate them."

"Pretty sure that'd be a health hazard considering where we live. You know, all that radiation." Digging through the book, Danny found himself mildly curious when he saw it seemed to all date back to his parents' college years. "Hey, think there are any embarrassing college photos in here?"

"They would have to have the ability to feel embarrassment in order for their college photos to be embarrassing." Jazz was  _vicious_ when she wasn't trying to 'be the adult.' Sometimes, Danny loved his sister. "Alright, move over. Let's see what we can find."

"You're just as nosy as I am." Laughing and sitting down, Danny upended the box, photo albums, textbooks, and a million other little things scattering across the wooden floors. Danny wouldn't be surprised if the floor broke from how much was in that box.

"How heavy  _was_ that box?" Jazz dropped down to sit beside Danny, stacking the various textbooks and albums into separate piles.

"Dunno, the weight of regret in here probably added a few pounds, though." Grinning at Jazz's little snort of laughter, Danny picked out the newspapers articles that were ragged and faded at the edges. Some of them still seemed in pretty good shape since the picture of his parents and Vlad was still crisp and clear in the one he was looking at. Wait.

Carefully smoothing out the article that looked as if it had been cut out from a school newspaper, Danny glanced over the words quickly. It was a piece on the new ghost hunting club that had been formed by Maddie Walker, Jack Fenton, and Vlad Masters. The three were standing in front of a table in what looked like a science lab, the picture in black and white. All three were wearing lab coats and were… smiling.

Danny knew that Vlad had been changed into a half ghost due to an accident that happened when he was a college student alongside with his parents, but he supposed he hadn't realized they were really  _friends_. Maddie was smiling and looking like a proper scientist while Jack and Vlad had their arms around each other's shoulders and were  _beaming_.

"Is that… Vlad?" Jazz leaned against Danny's shoulder, Danny tilting the paper so Jazz could see what he couldn't believe. "They look happy."

"I mean… I knew they were friends, but I guess I never really believed it, you know? I mean, he's always trying to kill Dad and marry Mom and stuff!"

"Evil is never really born, Danny." Jazz took the clipping from him carefully, studying it with a calm, almost blank expression. "What really happened between the three of them? I mean, they don't know Vlad is half-ghost, right?"

"No, they don't. That's how I won our first fight at the reunion, I threatened to expose us both." Just the thought of exposing himself to his parents terrified him. It wasn't a surprise that Vlad, who had been hiding the secret for twenty years, felt even worse about it. "I think he said something about how they abandoned him?"

"I can't believe that." Really? Their parents weren't the most conscious of people, sometimes. "Look at some of these photo albums."

"What about them?" Danny jolted as one was dropped in his lap, staring at it before sighing and opening it to a random page. He almost wished he hadn't. "Oh."

Every picture had some mix of their parents and Vlad, all of them looking happy and like they were having the time of their lives. There was one picture, however, that made him feel as if ice had been poured down his shirt.

The picture was warped a little at the edges, but the bottom corner had part of Maddie's grinning, laughing face. The cause of her laughter was the center of the picture where Jack and Vlad were curled up on a picnic blanket under a tree, textbooks and notebooks scattered around them as they slept curled up to each other.

It was almost a perfect copy for a picture Sam had of him and Tucker after they had fallen asleep near each other.

"They were like us." The words were quiet, but the realization was deafening. "Mom and Dad and Vlad? They were like me, Sam, and Tuck." Right down to the fact that Sam had been the cause of his ghost powers, in a way.

"That doesn't mean the same thing will happen to you." Jazz was quick to go into her reassuring parent voice, Danny almost laughing at the quick change.

"I wasn't thinking that it would." No, it was more the fact that now he  _understood_. "Something had to have happened so that they never visited him in the hospital."

Because if they were that close, they wouldn't have left without an act from God or something equally as worse. Danny hadn't ended up in the hospital, but if he had, he was certain that Sam and Tucker would have been curled up on either side of his hospital bed with him.

"What  _did_ happen though?" Jazz shook her head, looking frustrated that this was a puzzle she couldn't figure out. "I mean, why didn't they show up?"

"I don't know, but Vlad makes a lot more sense." It made  _perfect_ sense. Danny had never understood Vlad, but now he did perfectly. If Tucker and Sam hadn't been there after he had become Phantom… And then if he was still crushing on Sam and Tucker ended up getting together with her while he suffered through ghost powers  _alone_? Vlad made a hell of a lot more sense.

"Hey, uh, Jazz." Danny closed the album, giving Jazz his best sad eyes. "So, you know you're my favorite sister in the whole wide world, and that I really love you-"

"Don't bother," Jazz said, standing up with a dramatic, heavy sigh that Danny had stolen from her years ago. "Go on ahead, then. I'll finish up here." Letting his powers wash over him, Danny blinked away a few spots of light as he floated into the air, clutching onto the photo album.

"You really are the best big sister. You know that, right?" Because this all had been a lot harder when he didn't have Jazz by his side. Shit. He'd have to admit Ghostwriter was right about the whole fighting alongside your sibling thing next time he saw him. "I just… I think he needs someone to talk to who actually gets what he's going through."

"Someone who understands and who he'll listen to," Jazz nodded, pulling Danny over into a, thankfully, brief hug. "Be safe."

"I'll be back before you know it." Ghostwriter had been right those few weeks ago in the library. He did fondly believe in second chances.

::

"Oh, jeez… Have you never heard of a spring cleaning?" Danny had gone through the Ghost Zone to get to Vlad's lab, but he was starting to regret it considering what a  _wreck_ the place was. It looked like the Fenton lab during the whole Pariah Dark mess. Actually, Danny was almost sure that this was worse.

"Right. Focus, Fenton." Danny took a breath, floating through the lab. It was bigger than their own, but it was also so much creepier when the lights were off, and the only light source was the ghost portal behind him. The fact there were thick power cables and glowing substances in the distance did not help.

"Keep calm. You're a Fenton and half-ghost. You're fine. You're not allowed to be scared about this." It was bad enough that his friends still mocked him for being so scared of horror movies. "Just… gotta find Vlad."

Besides the hum of the portal and electricity through the cords, it was rather quiet, though. It was possible Vlad was at one of his businesses, since he was technically CEO of a lot of different places. Hard to remember, though, when he was so petty over some things.

Jeez, what was Vlad even  _working_ on? The whole place was a mess of torn apart machinery and wires and Danny would have thought some monster had torn the lab apart if it wasn't for the precision of where everything was placed. The weirdest part, though, were the large vats around the room - except they weren't quite vats. A closer look made Danny think of those sensory deprivation tubs, but honestly, they looked like those body jars in every sci-fi movie ever.

"Whatever you're doing must be big," Danny muttered, bending over some exposed wires. He wasn't exactly a science genius, but he knew enough to know that didn't look quite right. Prodding it with his foot, Danny startled as a wall of transparent pink was separating him from the sudden arc of static that looked more like  _lightning_. "Uh, heh, hey, Vlad. Um, thanks for the save, there."

Vlad's shield flickered out and Danny looked to where Vlad was lurking in the shadows like the vampire he claimed he wasn't. It was creepy. "Daniel… What are you doing here." It wasn't much of a question, and it wasn't until after he asked that Danny realized Vlad had just kept him from getting  _hurt_.

"Oh, uh, well, I actually kind of wanted to talk to you about something, I guess." Danny dug his fingers into the edges of the photo album, taking a steady breath. Vlad was talking before he could work up the courage to continue, though.

"Whatever inane problem of the week you've managed to wrap yourself up in, I want nothing to do with it. Your misplaced blame can leave, as well, since my plans have no concern towards you." Ah, right… Vlad had a more pretentious way of talking than even Ghostwriter.

"Oh, no, I, uh, I didn't want to fight or argue or blame you for anything. It's actually sort of good news, I guess?" Danny tried for a smile, hoping Vlad was in a good enough mood to hear him out.

"Leave, Daniel." Vlad's order was more of a hissing snarl, Danny trying not to show his flinch. While there were a few times where he saw Vlad wanting to get  _better_ , there were moments like this where the other man felt… dangerous. "You've made it quite clear that you have no business with me."

"Well, not business, no." Right. Phantom. Cocky hero. He could do that. "Come on, Fruitloop, I'm trying  _not_ to start a fight, this time. At least hear me out before you go all doom and gloom mad scientist, here."

Instead of Vlad throwing back with his own sass, Danny heard a low, menacing growl. Before he could figure out what the hell horror movie monster was about to kill him, he grunted as a sudden force  _slammed_ into him, the photo album dropping out of his hands as he scrambled to stop whatever was pushing at him.

When he righted himself and grabbed at his power to form an ectoblast, Danny could only blink as he saw that he was back in the Ghost Zone, Vlad's ghost portal gone from in front of him. It took a long moment for Danny to realize that he had just been shoved out of Vlad's lab before the man had  _shut down_ his portal. It was the same thing as pushing him out the door and then slamming it shut in his face.

"Right. Not a good day for talking, then." He had lost the album, too. He had been planning to use it to show how close Vlad and his parents had been, though, so maybe Vlad would find it and realize it on his own. It could even end up jogging some happy memories, so this was for the best, kind of! "Right. Okay."

Trying to gather his thoughts, Danny could only stare at where the portal had been because that really  _had_  been weird. Vlad was always kind of a douche, but he had never been so  _aggressive_ before. Loud, and forceful, and not afraid to get what he wanted, but Vlad had never been outright aggressive like… a ghost.

As he flew back home, Danny couldn't help but have a bad feeling about whatever it was Vlad was planning next.


End file.
